No one could accuse Fritz Lang of neglecting his homework while shooting his final movie of the cinematic decade he’d helped to define. To heighten the authenticity of silent film Woman in the Moon (aka Frau im Mond), the auteur roped in science writer and future cryptozoologist Willy Ley as consultant, and tasked Hermann Oberth, the real-life rocket scientist who’d later apply his technical knowhow to the Nazis’ vengeance weapon V-2, with creating the awe-inspiring ship that propelled its intrepid heroes into space.
Oberth’s work was so convincing, in fact, that the 1929 classic — which celebrates its 95th anniversary this month — was banned during World War II, his rocket design said to be a little close for comfort to the hugely secretive real thing. That’s not the only example of Woman in the Moon’s uncanny ability to predict the future of space travel, and the future of space travel in Hollywood films, either.
