| First Men in the Moon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Nathan H. Juran |
| Produced by | Charles H. Schneer |
| Screenplay by | Nigel Kneale |
| Story by | H.G. Wells |
| Starring | Lionel Jeffries Edward Judd Martha Hyer |
| Music by | Laurie Johnson |
| Cinematography | Wilkie Cooper |
| Editing by | Maurice Rootes |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 20, 1964 |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
First Men in the Moon, also known as H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon, is a 1964 science fiction film directed by Nathan Juran. It is an adaptation by the noted science-fiction scriptwriter Nigel Kneale of the H. G. Wells novel The First Men in the Moon.
Ray Harryhausen provided stop-motion effects, animated Selenites, giant caterpillar-like "Moon Cows", and a big-brained Prime Lunar.
Contents |
In 1964, the United Nations (UN) has launched a rocket flight to the Moon. A multi-national group of astronauts in the UN spacecraft land on the Moon, believing themselves to be the first lunar explorers. They discover a British flag on the surface and a note naming Katherine Callender, claiming the Moon for Queen Victoria. Attempting to trace Callender, UN authorities find she has died, but find her husband Arnold Bedford now an old man in an old people's home. The nursing home staff do not let him watch the television reports of the expedition because, according to the matron, it "excites him", dismissing his claims to have been on the Moon as an insane delusion. The UN representatives question him about the Moon and he tells them his story. The rest of the film, as a flashback, shows what Bedford and Professor Cavor did in the 1890s.
In 1899, Arnold Bedford and his fiancée Katherine Callender – known as Kate – meet an inventor, Joseph Cavor, who has invented Cavorite, a substance that will let anything it is applied to or made of deflect the force of gravity and which he plans to use to travel to the Moon. Cavor has already built a spherical spaceship for this purpose, taking Arnold and (accidentally) Kate with him. Whilst exploring the Moon, Bedford and Cavor fall down a vertical shaft and discover to their amazement an insectoid population, the Selenites, living beneath the surface. (Cavor coins this name for the creatures after the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene). After escaping from the Selenites back to the surface, they discover that their ship, still containing Kate (who stayed behind because Cavor had brought only two spacesuits), has been dragged into their underground city.
The two, following the drag trail, find and enter the city. The city holds a breathable atmosphere, so (unwisely) they take off and leave their spacesuit helmets. They see the city's power station, powered by sunlight. In the end they reach their ship underground. The Selenites quickly learn English and interrogate Cavor, who believes they wish to exchange scientific knowledge. The more practical Bedford eventually manages to persuade Cavor that the Selenites are interested in conquering Earth using Cavorite. Cavor helps Bedford and Kate to escape, but stays voluntarily on the Moon.
Bedford, along with Kate (who only leaves the ship once, to help repair the damage caused by the Selenites), flies the ship up a vertical shaft, shattering the window cover at the top, and back to Earth. The aged Bedford concludes his story by mentioning that the ship came down in the sea off Zanzibar, and sank, but he and Kate managed to swim ashore. There is no later radio message from Cavor, and his ultimate fate remains unknown.
Back in the present day, Bedford, the UN party and newspaper reporters watch on television the latest events on the Moon, where the American astronauts have broken into the Selenite city and find it deserted and decaying. Moments later, the ruined city starts to crumble and collapse, forcing the landing crew to retreat hastily, and seconds later the city is completely destroyed. Bedford realizes that the Selenites must have been killed off by Cavor's common cold viruses to which they had no immunity.
* Not credited on-screen.
Two types of spacesuits are featured. During the events of the story, which take place in the 1890s, standard diving dresses, each fitted with a 1960s-type aqualung cylinder-worn backpack instead of a NASA-type life support backpack, and no lifeline or airline from outside, are used as spacesuits. No provision is made to heat the suit, prevent suit ballooning in space vacuum, or to protect the hands from space vacuum. Volatile organics in the diving suit's gutta percha/rubber would boil away rapidly in a space vacuum.
The 1960s spacesuit in the film was identical to or the same as the Windak 1962 spacesuit prototype for the Royal Air Force space program.
Cavor and Bedford have no radio and must make their helmets touch each other to talk in the vacuum (although the filmmakers violate this rule several times). It is not clear whether the Selenites have radio. The history of radio was only just starting when the 1890s events were set. Wireless communication from Cavor in the Moon appears in H.G. Wells's novel.
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