Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967)
Directed by Don Sharp

Film Review

Despite what its title would suggest, there's precious little of Jules Verne's novel De la terre à la lune in this ramshackle British comedy.  Rocket to the Moon is essentially an overblown cartoon-like adventure in the same mould as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), which explains why the film was released in the United States under the more fitting title of Those Fantastic Flying Fools.  A cast of truly stellar proportions is completely wasted on this extravagant comedy misfire which struggles to elicit more than a grudging titter throughout its lethargically paced two hour runtime.  How could a film that offers the combined comedic talents of Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas and Jimmy Clitheroe falls so flat?  The answer: an unbelievably inept script from Dave Freeman, the man responsible for some of the worst Carry On films.  Equipped with what seems to be a massive budget, director Don Sharp makes a valiant effort to salvage this fiasco, and visually the film is quite striking, attractively shot in widescreen colour so as to do justice to the authentic period sets, costumes and mechanical contraptions.  Saddled with a rambling plot and a chronic dearth of decent gags, however, the film soon becomes wearisome and predictable.  If you do manage to sit through it to the end expecting to witness some lunar frolics you are in for a major disappointment.  The closest this film gets to the moon is a mountain in Wales.

Film Synopsis

After one business venture collapses, showman Phineas T. Barnum flees to England and immediately starts to set up another.  Hoping to capitalise on the best in Victorian scientific ingenuity, Barnum forms a syndicate to send a manned rocket to the moon.  Munitions expert Professor Von Bulow devises a method of propulsion: the rocket will be shot out of a hole in the side of a mountain by dropping it onto a mass of explosive material.  The rocket is designed by a young inventor Gaylord Sullivan, much to the anger of the recently disgraced engineer Sir Charles Dillworthy, whose design is rejected.  The project is jeopardised when funds supplied by the Duke of Barset and private donations are embezzled by the crooked scoundrel Captain Sir Harry Washington-Smythe.  When the fraud is exposed, Washington-Smythe joins forces with Dillworthy to sabotage the rocket so that it will explode on take off...