April 5 - Moon Pilot

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1962, Walt Disney Pictures released Moon Pilot. Based on a 1960 novel by Robert Buckner, Starfire, Pilot is notable for being the studio’s first science fiction movie. The plot is the usual silliness that Disney movies exhibited in the Sixties (but without the tang of desperation they acquired in the Seventies). An Air Force pilot is going to be the first man to travel around the moon so he has to go into top secret stealth mode to keep the Russians from finding out. While being babysat by bumbling federal agents, he runs into a beautiful but mysterious woman, who turns out to be an alien. The end scene is them flying off to her home planet singing love songs to each other. It’s not as bad as that summary might make it sound (two thirds of viewers on Rotten Tomatoes liked it), just don’t expect something on the level of, say, Passengers. Especially since humans were still six years away from actually traveling around the moon.

Image copyright Disney

The cast was made up of a mix of Disney mainstays and newcomers. The titular Pilot, Captain Richard Talbot, was played by Tom Tryon who also played the title role for seventeen episodes in the Wonderful World of Disney series Texas John Slaughter. Brian Keith, who starred a year earlier in The Parent Trap (and would appear in several more Disney films later on), was Talbot’s Major General. Even Tommy Kirk had a small role. Perhaps the standout performer of the film, though, is the French actress Dany Saval, in her first credited role. As Lyrae, the alien, she elevates the film above what’s typical for a somewhat slapstick comedy. Sharp eyed viewers can also see Sally Field and Jo Anne Worley, both enjoying their screen debuts.

Speaking of that slapstick, the film actually created some bad mojo between Walt and the FBI. Originally, the inept agents guarding Captain Talbot were identified as being from that agency. The FBI complained that guarding astronauts wasn’t something they did, so the agents became thinly veiled as Federal Security Officers. Once Moon Pilot was released, the FBI further complained that the movie made them look like idiots (which, to be fair, it did).