the rocket blasts off, carrying J-21, RT-42 and Single O, who has stowed away for the synthetic rum. Landing on Mars, they are received by the Queen, Looloo and the King, Loko. That night, Looloo and Loko take them to see a "show," a Martian opera, where a horde of trained Martian ourang-outangs dance about. They are suddenly attacked by Booboo and Boko, the evil twins (everyone on Mars is a twin) of the King and Queen. They escape and return to Earth, and as one of the first men on another planet, J-21 is permitted to marry LN-18. Finally, Single O is reunited with his aged son, Axel. Cast Production Art/cinematography The massive, distinctive Art Deco city-scape, for which Just Imagine has come to be best remembered, was built in a former Army balloon hangar by a team of 205 technicians over a five-month period. The giant miniature cost $168,000 to build and was wired with 15,000 miniature lightbulbs (an additional 74 arc lights were used to light the city from above); other production credits include costumes by Alice O'Neil, Sophie Wachner, and Dolly Tree. Special effects The sequence in which the El Brendel character is revived from the dead features the first screen appearance of the spectacular electrical equipment assembled by Kenneth Strickfaden, seen again and more famously in James Whale's Frankenstein (1931). Over 50 special effects shots combining previously photographed backgrounds with live foreground action were accomplished using the Dunning Process. Rear projection technology of the scale and quality required was not available at the time. The set design in the form of glass pictures and miniatures was done by Stephen Goosson, Ralph Hammeras, SPFX-guru Willis O'Brien, and Marcel Delgado (all uncredited). Music Of the DeSylva, Brown and Henderson songs introduced in the film, "Never Swat a Fly" was covered as the classic 1930 recording by McKinney's Cotton Pickers, the 1967 revival by Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, and more recent recordings by Doc Cheatham among others. Reception Mordaunt Hall called Just Imagine, "clever", "highly imaginative" and "intriguing" and praised the costumes and set design. This expensive film was a one-time-only novelty stunt, bolstered by the short-lived popularity of El Brendel. Wonder Stories "cordially recommended" the film, saying it "shows us many of the wonders that our science fiction authors have been writing about". Although a box-office flop, however, it was eventually able to make back