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Notes -
Watched Destination Moon (1950) by George Pal.
Astounding! I had doubts that this film could measure up to Pal's later When Worlds Collide (1951), since the stakes are much lower (winning the space race versus the end of the world), but the movie made up for it with its incredible scientific realism.
The astronauts endure take-off in acceleration couches to withstand the increased gravity during boosting, but spend most of the trip weightless, held to the surfaces of the ship by magnetic boots, then turn around and deaccelerate for the moon landing.
Reaction mass is always correctly referred to as such, not as fuel (which they presumably have a virtually unlimited supply of, this being an atomic motor). I chuckled when it was explained that the reaction mass is water, and that the rocket works by heating it up and expelling the resulting steam; in other words, it's boiling water again.
They even included the speed-of-light delay for communications with Earth! This is why it pays to hire a hard science-fiction author when you are writing your screenplay (Robert Heinlein worked on the script).
The highlight of the film for me was the Woody Woodpecker scene, "one of Hollywood's best known actors", which our heroes play during their pitch to explain the physics behind the journey. I'm a huge animation fan, and that bit was completely unexpected. Again, completely scientifically accurate.
I was amused by the fact that bureaucracy and regulation was a problem even in the 50s! "I will be [out of my mind] if we run into any more red tape. Now look... There's no law against taking off a spaceship. It's never been done, so it's not been prohibited. If we ask for permission, they'll find a way to block us. So we go now!" Of course, the problem is much worse now.
The special effects mostly hold up well, using practical tricks like dressing up a floor to look like a wall and rotating the angle to let the astronauts walk on walls with their magnetic boots. The only exception is the floating pill, which looks ridiculous; they should have just mimed it.
One of the greatest science fiction movies ever made. Highly recommended.
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