MOON ZERO TWO

   Film (1969). Hammer/Warner Bros. Dir Roy Ward Baker, starring James Olson, Catherine von Schell, Warren Mitchell, Adrienne Corri. Screenplay Michael Carreras. 100 mins. Colour.

   At the same time as the first actual Moon landing, Hammer Films were making this quasi-Western set on the Moon, envisaged as a rip-roaring Frontier area; the results are absurd. One of the hoariest of pulp Western plots is dressed up with a lot of colourful space hardware: a poor but honest space pilot/cowboy/gunslinger (Olson) is forced by a group of villains to capture an asteroid of pure sapphire, but his principles triumph and he foils their plans. The special effects by Kit West, Nick Allder and Les Bowie are unexpectedly convincing,considering the relatively small budget, but the film has no other strength. The novelization is Moon Zero Two * (1969) by John BURKE.

   JB/PN