Those Fantastic Flying Fools
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Dan Sharp
Burl Ives
Troy Donahue
Gert Fröbe
Hermione Gingold
Lionel Jeffries
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When his "Greatest Show on Earth" burns to the ground, the bankrupt Phineas T. Barnum, accompanied by his midget star, General Tom Thumb, heads for Victorian England. There he meets a German professor, von Bulow, who boasts that he has invented a powerful explosive capable of propelling a small projectile to the moon. Hopeful of amassing a new fortune, Barnum forms a syndicate to build a rocket for transporting the reluctant Tom Thumb into space. Although the project attracts spies from all over the world, the spaceship designed by Sir Charles Dillworthy proves useless since it does not provide a means for returning to the earth. Also on hand are an American balloon enthusiast, Gaylord Sullivan, and his fiancée, Madelaine. Gaylord claims that he has designed a projectile equipped with round-trip rockets, whereupon his rival for the hand of Madelaine, a wealthy Frenchman named Henri, offers to finance Gaylord's missile if he agrees to take Tom Thumb's place. The enraged Dillworthy and his shady brother-in-law, Harry Washington-Smythe, who have already embezzled most of Barnum's funds, immediately plot to sabotage Gaylord's flight. When Madelaine discovers their plan, she is kidnaped and whisked off to Angelica's Home for Wayward Girls. She escapes, however, and arrives back at the launching pad, located on a mountain in Wales, just as Gaylord is being removed from the sabotaged moonship. Now Dillworthy, Washington-Smythe, and a Russian spy, Bulgeroff, sneak into the spaceship to continue their sabotage. Suddenly Bulgeroff pulls the takeoff lever, and the three men are sent soaring on a one-way trip. They land in what is presumably barren wasteland to find inhabitants singing in Russian. The befuddled Washington-Smythe can only conclude that the Russians are already on the moon. [According to British sources, the launching produces an explosion which uncovers a rich vein of coal.]
Director
Dan Sharp
Cast
Burl Ives
Troy Donahue
Gert Fröbe
Hermione Gingold
Lionel Jeffries
Daliah Lavi
Dennis Price
Stratford Johns
Graham Stark
Terry-thomas
Jimmy Clitheroe
Joachim Teege
Joan Sterndale-bennett
Renate Von Holt
Edward De Souza
Klaus Kinski
Judy Cornwell
Derek Francis
Allan Cuthbertson
Crew
Basil Appleby
Les Bowie
John Brommage
Ann Chegwidden
Dave Freeman
Ron Goodwin
Frank Graves
Pat Moore
John Peverall
Patrick John Scott
Carl Toms
Frank White
Reg Wyer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Joachim Teege replaced Klaus Kinski
Notes
Released in Great Britain in 1967 as Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon; running time: 101 min. Alternative U. S. title: Blast-Off. Location scenes filmed in Ireland.
