| Way...Way Out | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
| Produced by | Malcolm Stuart |
| Written by | William Bowers Laslo Vanday |
| Starring | Jerry Lewis Connie Stevens Robert Morley Dick Shawn Anita Ekberg James Brolin |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | October 21, 1966 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Language | English |
Way...Way Out is a 1966 American film comedy starring Jerry Lewis and released by 20th Century Fox on October 21, 1966.
The year is 1989, and the United States decides to send a married couple to live on the moon and operate a U.S. weather station. The two astronauts currently manning the station, Hoffman (Dennis Weaver) and Schmidlap (Howard Morris), are suffering the effects of their long stay in space and need to be relieved, as Schmidlap regularly ties up Hoffman and has even knocked out his two front teeth. The sex-starved Schmidlap sits around drawing lewd pictures of naked women, prompting Hoffman to lament, "If only I could get him to go back to divinity school!"
Mr. Quonset (Robert Morley) is the head of NAWA and is only interested in the organization's image with the public. Since the situation with Hoffman and Schmidlap threatens to become an embarrassment to NAWA, he just wants the next team sent to the moon to be a married couple rather than two males.
Peter Mattemore (Jerry Lewis) is an astronaut who has been at NAWA for many years without having flown a mission. He is the only astronaut eligible for the mission, but unfortunately he is not married. He is, however, "practically engaged" to a waitress named Stella Mary.
Mr. Quonset informs him that he must be married within three days to a qualified astronaut. He tries to persuade fellow astronaut Eileen Forbes (Connie Stevens), who also has never been on a mission, to marry him, but she does not want to be rushed into marriage. She wants very much to be part of this one, but she is reluctant to go just as a means of fulfilling Mattemore's "masculine needs." Finally, Eileen agrees to marry Mattemore but insists that they be married in name only. At first Mattemore rejects the idea, stating that he would soon be crazier than Schmidlap, but after a few moments' reflection he realizes that he would rather go to the moon with Eileen under her prescribed conditions than with anyone else. The union is made official only forty-five seconds before launch.
When they arrive on the moon, they discover that there are two Russians living nearby at a Soviet lunar station. The Russians, Anna Soblova (Anita Ekberg) and Igor Baklenikov (Dick Shawn) are suspected of trying to sabotage the U.S. space station, but they are soon vindicated.
Anna then tricks Igor into marrying her by declaring she is pregnant. Once they are married she tells him the truth, and the Americans, who are now in love themselves, declare their intentions to have a "moon baby". As the film ends a race is on between the two couples to see who will be parents first.
Way...Way Out was filmed from January 24-March 30, 1966.
The narrator is John "Shorty" Powers, who had been NASA's mission commentator for Project Mercury.
The title song is performed by Gary Lewis & the Playboys led by Lewis' son, Gary.
Brian Keith has a cameo as General "Howling Bull" Hallenby.