Destination Moon

Twenty years before the Apollo astronauts actually landed there, George Pal was concocting a movie version of a trip to the moon - with the voyage financed by selfless capitalists. (It turned out that the selfless capitalism angle was more unrealistic than the actual exploration.)

I haven't seen the film, but the back of the LP says the idea was sold on a "whoever controls the moon controls the earth" pitch, and that the lead investor found this idea somehow moving. I'm not sure why he would get emotional over the moon exploration concept, but then I slept through the 1969 moon landing on my girlfriend's couch, so I'm no judge.

On to the music at hand, and it is a nice piece of work by Leith Stevens, who commanded a wide range of styles. This score bears little resemblance to The Wild One or The James Dean Story, which we've seen before in this space. I suppose it does have overtones of Holst and Ming the Merciless, and I know he cribbed one of the main motifs from somewhere I can't recall, but it is very enjoyable nonetheless and pretty well recorded for the time. And the cover is great!