Silver Screenings

We think NASA got it all wrong with the Apollo moon landings.

For starters, you’re going to cram astronauts in one tiny space capsule? And task them with collecting lunar soil & rocks? Then get them to kick lunar dust to “describe the trajectory”?

Puh-lease. Those American rocket scientists were thinking too small.

They should have studied Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) to learn a thing or two about moon exploration.

The plot of Cat-Women of the Moon is less important than the Concept, but here goes. Five American astronauts, dressed in casual park warden attire, fly to the moon where they discover a dwindling civilization of Cat-Women.

These women are the last of the bunch, and are delighted to see the earth rocket land on the moon. Their diabolical scheme is to hijack the rocket, fly to earth, and rebuild their civilization.

It’s almost too easy for the Cat-Women. They have the power to hypnotize the female astronaut (Marie Windsor), even from a great distance, and they’re able to make the male astronauts do their bidding using – uh – different methods.

The earthlings have no idea with whom they’re dealing.

The Cat-Women have carved out an exquisite life for themselves on the moon. They enjoy marble floors, silk draperies, and food that looks like melon balls. They serve drinks in silver goblets and dance to moon music.

They live in utter luxury, thanks to the water and breathable air on the moon.

It would appear NASA got that wrong, too.

There’s so much to love about this movie. It’s a low-budget, high-entertainment flick with unintentional comedy. But our favourite scenes involve space travel.

First, the moon rocket is very spacious. As you can see in an image above, there’s room enough for desks and wheeled office chairs with seatbelts. (Our favourite husband said, “They put seatbelts on chairs that move. So they take the chairs with them when they crash into walls.”)

The rocket ship furniture only gets better. In the first scene of the film, we find the astronauts passed out in luxury beach hammocks, complete with metal stands. Astronauts need these for reclining when losing consciousness after leaving the earth’s atmosphere. (Betcha NASA never thought of that, either.)

There’s also a locker room, where astronauts can change into their moon outfits, or hazmat suits to deal with nitric acid spills.

Those rocket engineers provided as much as they could for the voyage, although the ship is rather primitive compared to the high-society world of the Cat-Women.

Cat-Women of the Moon was originally released in 3-D. It would be a real treat to see this film on a 3-D screen, and not just for the cheesiness. The painted moonscapes are really quite beautiful, and the score is courtesy of Elmer Bernstein, before he became the Elmer Bernstein.

The cast had no illusions about the kind of film they were making. Marie Windsor said, in a 1992 interview:

[It was] one of the worst pictures I’ve been involved in. I think we made it in two weeks. In the last few days of production we were told we were over schedule and filming just stopped. Several pages of the script never got shot! I still can’t believe we were flying to the moon in a spaceship while sitting in regular desk chairs with wheels.¹

Reviews for the film were mixed. The New York Times dryly noted: “They (the Cat-women) try to get their hands on the visitors’ rocket ship, hoping to come down here and hypnotize us all. Considering the delegation that went up, it’s hard to imagine why.”²

We’re not going to say anything more about Cat-Women of the Moon, because we don’t want to spoil the fun. We urge you to see it, especially if you’ve had a bad day, to revel in prime 1950s sci-fi.

This post is part of THE EIGHTH SO BAD IT’S GOOD BLOGATHON, hosted by Taking Up Room.

Cat-Women of the Moon starring Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, Victor Jory. Directed by Arthur Hilton. Written by Roy Hamilton. Z-M Productions, 1953, B&W, 64 mins.

Notes

¹IMDb. (Retrieved February 11, 2026.) Cat-Women of the Moon Trivia.
²Wikipedia. (Retrieved February 11, 2026.) Cat-Women of the Moon.