The rocket engineer Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson) blows-up a rocket during the tests and loses the government funding. Together with his friends General Thayer (Tom Powers) and Jim Barnes (John Archer), they raise funds from American industrialists to build a rocket using atomic engine in the desert to reach the moon. However the public opinion is against the project afraid of radiation leakage in the spot and they decide to anticipate the launch of the spaceship without tests. The radar and radio operator Joe Sweeney (Dick Wesson) is invited and teams-up with them and the rocket is called Luna. During the descent on the moon, they use too much fuel to safely land. After the exploration of the lunar soil, Charles realizes that they need to reduce the weight of the rocket to launch back to Earth based on the remaining fuel. They remove all the essential equipment but Charles concludes that someone must be left behind. Will they return to Earth?"Destination Moon" is a surprising good sci-fi from 1950. The story uses technological concepts to explain the situations and is very well developed. The use of the Woody Woodpecker is very funny and the special effects are impressive for a 1950 film. The conclusion "This Is the End of the Beginning" is visionary. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not available on Blu-Ray or DVD.

Wonderful movie. I watched it when I was 6 years old and this film impressed me a lot. Then, I had to wait for 40 years before I could see it again. In the meantime Apollo II had landed on the moon and everybody could see that the film had anticipated reality with great accuracy. The famous comic strip "Tintin" was greatly influenced by this film : the space-suits, the magnetic shoes, the extra vehicular activity,the propulsion of the rocket etc...are almost copy-pasted from the film At the end of the film, the astronauts have to leave a lot of stuff on the moon because their rocket is too heavy and in the mission Apollo II we can see the real astronauts do the same but this time to minimize the risks of a possible contamination. The end of the film is a bit frustrating as we don't see the astronauts land safely on the earth,but, anyway this film is exceptional and ranks high in my personal movie hit-parade

*Spoiler/plot- Destination Moon 1950, Private companies pull together to build a spaceship to go to the moon to advance Man's technology and science knowledge.*Special Stars- Jim Archer, Warner Aderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson.*Theme- Taking chances with space travel makes for good drama.*Trivia/location/goofs- woody woodpecker cartoon used to explain space travel by rocket, This expensive G. Pal film confused with low budget film, Rocketship X-M released around the same time purposely. Watch for rocket acceleration facial distortion to be accomplished by small flesh colored adhesive strips placed on actors faces attached to clear fishing line and pulled of camera by film crew members. Watch for obvious studio set lights reflected in spacesuit helmet visors, and film crew shadow near open hatch door to help push cast onto the spaceship's outer surface.*Emotion- One of the earliest expensive classic space travel films made on the 50's. become the prototype for film space travel, ships, and knowledge of the public. George Pal's production tastes and films have been the hallmark of good films for decades. This film is not only a classic but is exciting to view no matter how the science of space travel has changed and become more sophisticated. This film is still a treat.

I'm not a big Heinlein fan, partially because of his politics... and his conservative viewpoints do factor into the film, although thankfully only in the first act. Like THE WOMAN IN THE MOON, this is a speculative look at what it would be like to travel to our satellite. This is a far more realism-based film than Lang's, however, with the advantage of an additional 20 years of knowledge. And it does seem to get a lot of the science right. Unfortunately, it could use a little more imagination, and ends up pretty dull and too concerned with scientific explanation (including a Woody Woodpecker cartoon illustrating the basics of space flight). There are a couple of intriguing/exciting scenarios but even those are undercut by Dick Wesson, playing a "Joe Six Pack" character who comes along as a last minute replacement for one of the crew. Wesson's dumb Brooklynese comments are real groaners. This movie ought to have been a lot more fun.