“We’ve probably landed out of sight of Earth. We might as well be on Neptune.”
In 1970 The United States has a space station in orbit around the Earth. Future plans are to perhaps set up a base on the Moon. To determine if it is feasible a survey of the Moon must be done. To that end Colonel Briteis (Donna Martell), Major Bill Moore (Ross Ford), and Doctor Wernher (Larry Johns) are assigned the mission to complete a survey so possible landing sites can be determined. Briteis and Moore are to man the rocketship and Wernher is to take photographs of possible landing sites. However, the Dr. Wernher on board the ship is an impostor. He is working for a foreign faction. His mission is to destroy the US's Earth-orbiting space station. His plan is, once they are on their way back, to take over the rocket ship and kamikaze it straight into the space station.
His plans do not go as smoothly as he would like. On the way to the Moon he gives himself away. A fight ensues. The controls of the rocket are accidentally hit and the rocket plummets to the surface of the Moon. Briteis makes an emergency landing. Now they don’t have enough fuel to take off. They are effectively marooned on the Moon. And their communication system is out.
Briteis and Moore have a history. They don’t get along. At least not anymore. Briteis was promoted past Moore and he was not happy about it. Now they have to get along or all is lost. Moore must go out on the surface of the Moon and establish a communication relay system. To do that he needs the fake Wernher’s help. The fake Wernher agrees to help. They establish the connection to the space station and start back to the ship. On the way back, however, Wernher is killed in an accident. When communication is established the status of the ship and crew is relayed to the space station.
***Spoiler: The Government holds an emergency meeting. They decide to make the spaceship the core of the new moon base. Moore and Briteis are ordered to stay there and establish the moon base. Since they will be together alone on the Moon and to avoid a scandal, General Green (Hayden Rorke) wants them to get married. They agree to get married and live happily ever after on the Moon.***
“Project Moonbase” was released in 1953 and was directed by Richard Talmadge. The film is unusual for its time in both attempting to portray space-travel in a 'realistic' manner, and for depicting a future in which women hold positions of authority and responsibility equal to men. The President of the United States is a woman. The interior set of the spaceship was later used in the film "Cat Women of the Moon" 1953.
Now it may have been thought of as realistic in 1953, but now it’s just funny. It still has lots of sexist overtones, and undertones. You can take the movie out of the 50’s, but you can’t take the 50‘s out of the movie. As far as the futuristic space clothes are concerned, they look like they would be more appropriate for the beach. They even come with bathing caps. Their idea of gravity and how to overcome it is a little upside down as well. The sabotage angle of the plot was not the actual plot but a plot devise just to get the two main characters on the Moon alone. It turns out the film is not a science fiction movie but a romantic comedy. I think a lot of little kids were just a little bit disappointed in this one. I know I was. I did laugh a lot though.