User Reviews

Remember that 50s sci-fi skit in Joe Dante's Amazon Women On the Moon (1987), the one with the deliberately bad special effects, lack of scientific accuracy, space women in short skirts, and heroic but dumb astronauts? Well Beyond the Moon is just like that (the only thing that's missing is a pet space monkey), proving just as funny as Dante's spoofery at times, although never intentionally.

Pieced together from episodes of TV space series "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger," the film sees sexist pilot Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) and his goofy co-pilot Winkie (Scotty Beckett) being joined by beautiful blonde navigator Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) for a trip to the planet Ophesia; their mission... to rescue Earth scientist Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) and his spunky young ward Bobby (Robert Lyden) who are being held by the Ophesians against their will.

Low budget and rather crude in its execution, Beyond The Moon offers unexceptional thrills and iffy special effects galore as Rocky and pals blast, punch and shoot their way through the galaxy, but the likable characters and hilariously dated trappings ensure that the whole affair has enough charm to prevent it from ever getting too boring.

Rocky Jones is gay, right? Just look how much of a fuss this guy makes about having a girl on board his spaceship. Seriously, he's going on about how he'd prefer to have 'two fists' on board instead of a female navigator who can speak an alien language. She can speak the language, eh Rocky, but an hour on the tower of power is much better eh?

Seriously, he doesn't shut up about having a female on board. It's like Jim Davidson playing the part of Flash Gordon.

Non-gay wise, this is your usual condensed serial film that tries to pack everything into a feature length film. Luckily, nothing seems to happen in a Rocky Jones film anyway, so the film works out that way, but still, you have to have a high level of tolerance of crap effects and b*llocks plot lines.

It was okay, nothing major, nothing terribly bad. I've got at least two, maybe three more of these Rocky Jones films to watch

"Beyond the Moon" edits together the first three episodes of the 1954 space series, "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger," episodes that originally ran as a three-parter called "Beyond the Curtain of Space." It introduces the characters we'd see as series regulars in such later feature compilations from the series as "Menace from Outer Space" and "Crash of the Moons." The lovable old Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) is here and is branded a traitor for disavowing his loyalty to Earth in a famous "declaration" and staying on the renegade planet Ophesia with his young ward, Bobby (Robert Lyden). Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) had worked as a translator for Professor Newton on Ophesia and is eager to clear his name. When Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) and his gangling, goofy young sidekick Winkie (Scotty Beckett) are assigned to travel from Earth to Ophesia, Vena insists on going along, despite Rocky's assertions that a space voyage is "no place for a girl." From a 21st century standpoint, Rocky's casual sexism in some future space age is pretty jarring but it gives Vena the chance to defend herself and assert her qualifications—she is, after all, a navigator, and she knows the Ophesian language. Rocky does come off as a male chauvinist jerk at times, telling Vena to knit him a sweater and referring to her as "our glamor girl navigator." (Well, she IS gorgeous!) When told that she knows Ophesian, his response reflects, I suppose, the then-accepted Cold War approach to nation-building: "I'd rather have an extra pair of fists. Anybody understands that language."

On Ophesia, we find that Professor Newton and Bobby have been hypnotized into wanting to stay on the planet thanks to a machine used by the planet's authoritarian female ruler, Cleolanta, whose men-in-black keep a close eye on Rocky and his team while they land for the ostensible reason of making repairs. Meanwhile, we learn that there's an actual traitor in the Office of Space Affairs on Earth who is alerting Cleolanta and her men to Rocky's every intent. Rocky's immediate goal is to get Professor Newton and Bobby back to Earth, while the long-term goal, as seen in later episodes, is to get Cleolanta and Ophesia to join United Worlds, the space federation that Earth seems to lead, and open trade and formal relations with other planets. (Shades of "Star Trek!")

The whole thing is actually surprisingly well-scripted and acted. Despite its space sci-fi trappings, it really is focused on character and the way people and nation-planets relate to each other in this future age when space colonies are far-flung and travel between planets is a lot easier and less time-consuming than we know it to be. I'm particularly impressed with Sally Mansfield's Vena Ray. She's incredibly cute and perky (and must have raised the temperatures of a lot of 1950s adolescents during the series' first run), but is also self-confident, self-aware, assertive and proactive. At times, she seems like the smartest one on the spaceship. She would become an integral member of the cast and is quite memorable in the later episodes I've seen.

It's a very low-budget series, with special effects that are sometimes crude by today's standards, but there's a level of imagination at work that's quite impressive and a creative use of actual locations and matte shots when necessary. For instance, all scenes of the rocket base from which Rocky's craft is launched on Earth are done at a sprawling Los Angeles power plant and the actors are shot on location there. There's one well-executed matte shot of Rocky's ship blasting off from the middle of the power plant. The outdoor scenes on Ophesia are all shot using the exterior of the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park, a stone's throw from downtown Los Angeles. The interiors tend to be strictly functional and boast a few suggestions of high technology to augment the standard 1950s office furniture we see, even in the spaceships. One curious touch seen on both Earth and Ophesia is a 1950s convertible sports car that seems to fit only two people when seen in closeup, but fits three in a pinch in one scene. I'm sure it's the exact same car used in all of its scenes on both planets.

Beyond the Moon is a TV movie edited together from several episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. It seems to be very early episodes from the series as a lot of the characters seem to be being introduced for the first time. I've now seen several of these Rocky Jones space adventures and I can't say I've liked any of them. This one is almost as interchangeable as all the others and you would be doing very well indeed to be able to differentiate them apart when looking back on the titles and trying to remember what individual movies were about.

This one sees the boorish Rocky Jones, his wacky sidekick Winkie and the feisty Vena Ray go on a rescue mission to the planet Ophesia to bring back Professor Newton and the young Bobby, both of whom seem to have been put under some nefarious mind-control. It's all fairly predictable and a little tiresome. Fun to a limited extent on account of the charmingly clunky special effects. It also has a cheerful sexism that is fairly amusing to look back on. But on the whole these Rocky Jones films are hard work getting through. Some people evidently appear to enjoy them but I have to say I'm not one of them.

I was expecting something else from this film I guess. I didn't realize it was from three episodes of a TV serial cut down and put together into a film version. I was thinking this was a "movie" movie and not a serial. Oh well, live and learn I guess. This is Rocky Jones, Space Ranger! It looks like something I might have watched if I was a little kid in the 1950s but it's not something I care to watch in this day and age. I'm not saying this is an awful movie but I am saying it's just not my thing.

If you have kids and like science fiction and want your child/children to watch something wholesome then this film is a good starting place.

Those baseball caps they were wearing in a spaceship really got to me, but not in a good way... very silly. lol.

2/10

Ignoring its episodic origins and taking this just as a self contained movie, this is marvellous stuff, a good old fashioned boys own space drama for those who don't want no cooties.

Our main heroes are clean shaven white t-shirt wearing brill creamed pals in the musical navy mold. Space Captain Rocky is a musclebound jock straight out of a period beefcake magazine, who mentors his younger slimmer co-pilot Winky on the butcher points of manly space ship driving with a wink and a smile.

Winky is prone to staring open mouthed at the god-like perfection that is his superior to exclaim lines like 'Galloping galaxies Rocky, what are we gonna do!?' and Rocky then assures him everything will be just fine if he only does everything The Rocky Way.

All the (two) women are either a mild annoyance, or trying to distract these manly men from their manly jobs with their sly feminine ways.

At one point Rocky deals with his hysterical female navigator via Winky turning off her helmet mic. Later he teachs her how to be his secretary, at which point everything falls into its right and proper place!

There is also the obligatory gee-willickers kid representing the intended audience who one day wants to grow up to be just like Rocky, and of course who wouldn't.

In short, it's so 1950s it hurts.

This is desperate to be remade as a knowing gay comedy, although to be honest it pretty much already is. Either put this on when one of your humourless PC friends is over and watch their head explode, or just crack a few beers, gather your friends and enjoy, as Rocky and Winky get their guns out for the boys and together they ride on that big silver rocket till they see stars!

Heroic Space Ranger, Rocky Jones (Richard Crane), irreverent co-pilot Winky (Scotty Beckett, whose unfortunate real-life trajectory contrasted with his affable 'sidekick' character) and perky blonde Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) head to Ophecius to rescue Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) and his grandson, Space-Ranger-wannabe Bobby (Robert Lyden), who are being held in electronic thrall by the villainous villainess Cleolanta (Patsy Parsons). The film consists of the first three episodes of the TV series ( 'The Curtain of Space' parts 1-3), which were written to allow near seamless fusing into a feature length film and introduces many of the main characters and their 'futuristic world'. Rocky is a typical handsome hero, girl-crazy Winky provides comic relief and Vena, although her initial meet-cute 'banter' with po-faced he-man Rocky is clichéd and badly dated, is quickly established to be a polyglot who serves as Rocky's translator as well as a competent astro-navigator. In keeping with the political dichotomy of the 1950s, there seems to be two major powers: the enlightened 'United Worlds of the Solar System' and repressive 'Ophecius Formation', which is referred to as being on the other side of the 'curtain' and a place where the population is denied "information about life on other moons or planets". Unlike most of the 1950's space-adventures, 'Rocky Jones' was filmed (not kinescoped), so the series survived and is readily available (or at least the movie versions are). For a 1950s TV show, the special effects are ambitious and ingenious, especially the scenes of Rocky's rocket 'The Orbit Jet' taking off, with a gantry cleverly embedded into footage of the power-station that stood in for the Space Rangers' rocket base. The shots of the Orbit Jet in flight are a bit less impressive but the scenes where the classic 'finned spindle' rocket docks with the rotating space-station are Freudingly impressive (for the budget and era). The story is a typical action-adventure yarn featuring lots of fights and heroics, the 'science' is a bit wobbly, the various gadgets implausible and usually very convenient, and the script is full of spacey ejaculations like "Sparkling stardust!", but overall the show seems a bit more 'adult' that its competition, with lots of people getting killed (Rocky doesn't seem to object to leaving the occasional bad guy to be blown up). The Rocky Jones series is an example of well-made and entertaining '50's TV that will appeal to fans of retro-sci-fi. One final note: Vena's gorgeous sports-car is a very rare (and aptly named) 'Grantham Stardust'.

There are Foreshadowing of "Star Trek" as well as the "Batman" TV Show in these Early Television Episodes of "Rocky Jones Space Ranger".

For its Time and Place these Half-Hour Episodes were Highly Entertaining for Youngsters and Child at Heart Grown-Ups.

There are Plenty of Eye-Catching SFX, sure Cheap and Limited by Budget and Technology, but Eye-Candy Nonetheless.

Speaking of Eye-Candy, Mini-Skirted (a Star Trek staple) Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) is Perky and Lights Up the Screen as the "Girl" Macho-Man Beefcake Rocky Does Not Want Aboard.

He'd Rather have a Pair of Fists and Not a Pair of...Never Mind.

But Vena Demonstrates Her Intelligence and Worthiness Many Times.

Alongside the Rock is Side-Kick "Winky" (Scotty Beckett) who was Channeled by Burt Ward's Robin, and is Mainly a Helper and Handy-Man and All Around Patriotic Space Ranger.

But the Star of the Show is all of the Keen Props like Space Helmets, Brain Blasters, and a Tractor Beam Gadget, along with the Streamlined Spaceships and a Space Station Docking that is a Stunner.

This Entry, among others, is a Combination of a Three-Parter.

Worth a Watch for Nostalgic Baby-Boomers and Seekers of Light-Hearted Fun with a bit of Visual Flare.