Byron Haskin directed From the Earth to the Moon, a Technicolor sci-fi based on Jules Verne’s book, starring Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, and Debra Paget.
After the end of the American Civil War, munitions producer Victor Barbicane (Cotten) invents a new explosive, “Power X,” which is more powerful than any previous devise.
Metallurgist Stuyvesant Nicholl (George Sanders) scoffs at Barbicane’s claims and offers a wager of $100,000 that it cannot destroy his invention. Barbicane then stages a demonstration using a puny cannon and demolishes Nicholl’s material.
President Ulysses S. Grant (Morris Ankrum) requests that Barbicane cease development of his invention after some countries consider it as act of war.
Barbicane agrees, but when he discovers that pieces of Nicholl’s metal retrieved from the demonstration have been converted into a strong ceramic, he constructs a spaceship to travel to the Moon, and recruits Nicholl to help build it.
Meanwhile, Nicholl’s daughter Virginia (Debra Paget) and Barbicane’s assistant Ben Sharpe (Don Dubbins) fall in love.
Cast
Joseph Cotten as Victor Barbicane
George Sanders as Nicholl
Debra Paget as Virginia Nicholl
Don Dubbins as Ben Sharpe
Patric Knowles as Josef Cartier
Carl Esmond as Jules Verne
Henry Daniell as Morgana
Note:
I am grateful to TCM for showing this film on January 18, 2020.