Rocketship X-M (1950)

Dr. Karl Eckstrom: With that differential of six over N to the thirtieth power the halfway check result is two hundred and sixty-two thousand to three hundred and forty-one thousand both using tangent E, correct?
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: That isn't the result I have.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: They must be the same. There is an error there.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: [defensive] I have made no error, Doctor Eckstrom.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: I have to say that you have made and error and to discard your figures. I'm sorry.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: [sarcastic] Don't be.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: Surely you are not going to let emotion enter into this?
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: [dejected] Certainly not.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: We will continue computing using my results as a basis.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: Yes, I... Except that I feel very strongly I should say we should try both.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: We can't. To complete either caculation would take six to eight hours; we can't afford the time. It's either one or the other, Doctor Van Horn.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: [pleading] But it doesn't have to be. You can't be arbitrary about imposing your will when these people's lives are at stake, don't you realize that? And you speak as calmly as if you were saying 'Pass the salt.' Aren't you human? Are you made of ice?
[brief pause as she collects herself]
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: I'm sorry, I apologize.
Dr. Karl Eckstrom: For what? For momentarily being a woman? It's completely understandable, Miss Van Horn. Now shall we go ahead?
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: Yes Doctor.

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Rocketship X-M underwent several changes in concept before finally being filmed as it is. Initially, producer-director Kurt Neumann wanted to film a movie about an expedition to Mars that encounters living dinosaurs, but producer Robert L. Lippert rejected the script. Around the same time, special effects man Jack Rabin approached Lippert with a script about a space flight to the moon, to be called 'Destination Moon'. Producer George Pal, however, had just copyrighted that title for his own picture about a lunar mission, but Lippert changed his mind and, to take advantage of the publicity for Pal's Destination Moon, brought Neumann's and Rabin's ideas together for his own film about a spaceflight to the moon. Subsequent threats of legal action from Pal forced Lippert to change the venue of his film from the moon back to the planet Mars - the locale in Neumann's original script.
The original trailer for this film emphasized the fact that it was the first film involving space travel. It was in theaters more than three weeks before the first showings of George Pal's Destination Moon.
In the 1970s businessman Wade Williams acquired the rights to Rocketship X-M and proceeded to produce new special effects sequences to take the place of the film's original effects scenes. New shots included a model of the rocket in space, sequences depicting the ship descending toward and taking off from Mars, re-filmed sequences on Mars with new actors, and the use of stock footage of an actual nighttime rocket take-off in the launch sequence at the start of the movie. These sequences were substituted for original footage that was cut from the film, and were seen on the initial VHS and DVD releases in the US. In the 1990s, however, much of this substitute footage was removed and the original scenes restored. The only remaining updated effects sequences occur in the initial launch from Earth, and shots of the rocket landing on and departing from Mars (all of which used stock footage of a V-2 rocket in the original). However, the complete, uncut, original version of the film remains unavailable.
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