Cat Women of the Moon

Release Date: September 3, 1953
Starring: Sonny Tufts as Laird Grainger
Victor Jory as Kip Reissner
Marie Windsor as Helen Salinger
Director: Arthur Hilton
Producers: Jack Rabin, Al Zimbalist
Writer: Roy Hamilton
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Cinematographer: William P. Whitley
Distributor: Astor Pictures
Time: BW 64 mins.

Purchase Cat Women of the Moon (DVD) at the TCM store.

Interesting Tidbits

Cat Women of the Moon was filmed in 3-D.

Alhough Cat Women of the Moon is a B science fiction film, it has a well-known and accomplished music composer in the name of Elmer Bernstein. The American Film Institute (AFI) nominated two of his scores, The Magnificent Seven and To Kill A Mockingbird as two of greatest film scores of all time (8th and 17th respectively.) He won an academy award for Thoroughly Modern Millie.

The Plot

An expedition to the Moon encounters a race of "Cat-women", the last eight survivors of a 2-million-year-old civilization deep within a cave where they have managed to maintain the remnants of a breathable atmosphere that once covered the Moon. The remaining air will soon be gone and they must escape if they are to survive. They plan to steal the expedition's space ship and return to Earth.

Through the use of their telepathic ability the Cat-women have been subliminally controlling Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor) so she can win the navigator slot on the expedition and lead the crew to their location. Once Helen and the male members of the crew arrive on the moon the Cat-women take complete control of her mind. Unable to control the men's minds they work around this obstacle with Helen's help and the use of their superior abilities and feminine wiles. "Show us their weak points," one says to Helen. "We'll take care of the rest." More from Wikipedia.com.