First Men in the Moon (1964) Online

Someone who had read H. G. Wells' "First Men in the Moon" and then sat down to watch this adaptation may well be aghast at the opening sequences, which deal with a "modern-day" mission to the moon, as opposed to the 1899 setting of the novel. But stay with it, and you'll find that the contemporary setting is just a framework to introduce us to the story basically as Wells wrote it: a fantasy about a trip to the moon in the Victorian era.

So why did the filmmakers choose to frame the story in this flashback format? Simple. At the time Wells wrote his novel, the very idea of a trip to the moon was fantastical; heavier-than-air flight hadn't even been invented yet, let alone space travel. But by the time the movie was made in the '60s, we were on our way to the moon, JFK having stated it as an objective. While still a gripping, exciting idea, a trip to the moon was no longer a fantasy, but a hardware-based reality. (In fact, the modern spacecraft depicted are very much like what ultimately made the trip in 1969: an orbiting command module and a spidery-legged landing unit, not the old saucer-craft or delta-winged ships of the '50s. So while "dated," these opening scenes aren't foolish. And the international crew on board--since it's a mission of the UN, not just the USA--reflect today's reality of the International Space Station; reality has finally caught up with this fiction.)

So, how to make what was becoming a here-and-now reality (in 1964, the Gemini missions were beginning, paving the way for the Apollo program) back into a magical fantasy? By having the modern explorers discover evidence that their "first" lunar landing had been predated by a trip in 1899! One of the voyagers, Bedford (Edward Judd) is found to be still alive and very old at the time of the contemporary mission, and his tale is told in flashback, a structure much like that of "Little Big Man" or "Titanic."

Some other changes are made as well. The long trip to the moon reads well in the book, but if filmed as described (the two men float in darkness and silence inside the sphere, as the unsecured baggage gradually gravitates to the center of the "room"), it would have made incredibly boring viewing, so the scripter adds a few vignettes to lighten the journey. The riot of plant life that erupts across the lunar surface at sunrise would have elicited hoots from a modern audience, and so is eliminated on screen; yet the just as unscientific touch of having the men cavort around the surface in diving suits (which would have swelled up like balloons in the vacuum of space, to say nothing of the men's exposed hands) clearly signal that this is, after all, a fantasy, and not "true" science fiction. And Cavor's audiences with the Grand Lunar, which take place in the book after Bedford has returned to earth, are reduced in the movie to a single hearing which happens while Bedford and his girl (keep reading) are still on the moon: rather than just hear it described, we see it happen, which is, of course, a much more cinematic handling.

While Bedford and Cavor make a stag trip in the novel, the movie adds a woman, Kate Callender (Martha Hyer), Bedford's fiancee. Her inclusion isn't gratuitous; by being in places on the moon where Bedford and Cavor aren't, she helps the story cover more ground in less time than otherwise would have been the case. Besides, she's the sort of woman whom Wells, a feminist and self-described "free thinker," would have liked: she's tough, smart, brave, and doesn't put up with much. She's the epitome of the "new woman" of that turn-of-the-century era, the sort of restless woman who was learning such manly things as how to operate a newfangled typewriting machine so she could get a job in an office. As an American in Britain, she's a bit of a traveler herself; she symbolizes Britain's exploratory, empire-building, "new world"-seeking, colonizing impulses (indeed, upon arrival, Cavor claims the moon for Her Majesty); and she's the only person involved in the mission who has enough sense to bring a gun.

While all the performances are equal to the task (especially Lionel Jeffries' comically high-strung Cavor, plus a one-scene appearance by the impish Miles Malleson as a city clerk), this isn't an actors' picture, but an effects picture. And Ray Harryhausen delivers, as he always does. The Grand Lunar in particular is a haunting, whispery presence, curiously but coolly regarding these human intruders and weighing their fates. Even the music works: Laurie Johnson's score, evocative of an awed sense of wonder married to a towering adventure, is worthy of Bernard Hermann.

You may have guessed this is an old favorite of mine. I saw it as a child, when it was new. It hasn't aged a day.

This is movie number ten for the great Ray Harryhausen, who provides his usual stunning animation, although the plot is a bit cynical for some taste, lacking the cheerful charm of such movies as "Journey to the Center of the Earth". In this one we get animated Selenites, giant caterpillar-like "Moon Cows", and a big-brained Grand Lunar on his regal throne. The special effects in the scenes of Professor Cavor's spherical spaceship en route to the Moon are beautiful.

The opening scene is clever: the "first" astronauts to land on the moon (an international group) is stunned by the discovery of a tiny British flag on the lunar surface. A message attached to the flag identifies the real first Moon landers, and the authorities on Earth get in touch with one of them, an aging Edward Judd, who tells the strange tale of his turn-of-the century expedition with Professor Cavor (Jeffries) and Judd's fiance' (Hyer).

I watched this film for the first time recently and as a 22 year old brought up with E.T. and Star Wars I have to say I was still impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the whole film. The effects are great, the story is well adapted to fit on to your screen and is believe it or not, thought provoking. I would recommend this film to anyone of any age and especially those who enjoyed the original Time Machine and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Great fun.

The Schneer/Harryhausen team’s follow-up to the Jules Verne adventure MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961) is this similarly colorful turn-of-the-century spectacle adapted from an H.G. Wells novel. While not as popular or as exhilarating as the earlier film perhaps, it’s nonetheless a delightful yarn and one of the team’s best overall efforts.

Starting off in a modern-setting as the ‘first’ landing on the Moon is taking place (about 5 years before the actual fact), the astronauts are flabbergasted to find the Union Jack and a note indicating that an English scientist had already claimed it back in 1899! We’re then introduced to the character played by Edward Judd (currently institutionalized in old folks’ home) – who, with his fiancée Martha Hyer, had accompanied Professor Lionel Jeffries on that fateful yet unsung trip to the Moon; the story proper is then told in flashback. The film has been criticized for its over-abundance of comic relief in the persona of the buffoonish Jeffries; however, for my part, I was totally taken with his eccentric character and his performance is an utter joy to behold. Judd is his typical roguish self, while Hyer adds charm and loveliness to the already attractive scenery (of Victorian England and the imaginative lunar landscape with its cavernous interiors).

It takes quite some time to get to the scenes on the Moon and, once there, we’re treated to just two of Harryhausen’s trademark (albeit marvelous) creations – a couple of giant caterpillars, whom our heroes have to fend off, and the mass of Selenite inhabitants, who seem eager to study the intruding Earthlings (the script, co-written by famed sci-fi expert Nigel Kneale, is at its most introspective during Jeffries’ trial before The Grand Lunar). Further reason why the expedition proves insufficiently exciting is the fact that we learn precious little of Life on the Moon…and it all concludes on a somewhat anti-climactic note (even more disappointing because Wells was basically repeating himself!).

That said, the film does looks great in color and widescreen (luckily, the DivX copy I watched didn’t suffer from the distracting jerkiness which had plagued my recent viewings of other vintage sci-fi titles on this format), and Harryhausen’s various props – such as the makeshift space-gear (actually diving-suits), the spherical ship, and “Cavorite” (the substance invented by Jeffries which enables the flight into outer space and back, simply by being applied as a coating on the spaceship’s surface!), add to the fun and pervading sense of wonder. Laurie Johnson’s rousing score, then, emerges as the perfect accompaniment to the fantastic proceedings and, undoubtedly, one of the film’s major assets. By the way, Peter Finch famously appeared in an unbilled cameo in this film as a messenger for the local bailiff (apparently, he visited the set and then offered his services to replace an actor who had failed to show up!).

Ultimately, rather than being considered a visionary sci-fi epic, the film rightfully belongs amid the long-running cycle of entertaining (if somewhat juvenile) adventure films based on classic literary tales – 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954), AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956), FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1958), JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), THE LOST WORLD (1960), MASTER OF THE WORLD (1961), the aforementioned MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON (1962), THE LOST CONTINENT (1968), THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1975), etc.

The heart and spirit of H. G. Wells's novel remains intact in this Ray Harryhausen/Nathan Juran vehicle. A 20th century frame story about American led international crew landing on moon and finding an old Union Jack flag and a letter giving rights to the moon to Queen Victoria in 1899 add a brilliant touch to this story about a professor and his two neighbors exploring space and landing on the moon. The scientific explanation for space travel is absurd as are many other plot contrivances, but the story is a fun, entertaining romp about what exploration use to be like when man relied less on machines and more on brains. Director Juran and Harrysausen have created a film with many funny moments, beautiful moon landscapes, and even some thought-provoking questions about human nature and what humans are all about. Although this is not like any other Harryhausen picture - really only one large, cumbersome, rather mundane creature, Harryhausen really evokes awe as he creates a total vision of what a society might look like underneath the surface of the moon. The moon is a startling set and impressive. Laurie Johnson(Avenger's Theme) adds her brilliant touch and creates some beautiful music for the film. But when is all said and done - for me - the brightest star in this galactic romp is Lionel Jeffries as Professor Cavour. Jeffries lights up every scene he is in. His ability to use humor in every reflex and word make him a joy to behold. Does he overact? Perhaps. But in the same way that Vincent Price did. He steal his scenes and this picture. Edward Judd does nicely in his role as does Martha Hyer, who is beautiful as well.

One of Ray Harryhausen's best movies. As big a fan as I am of the Master Animator, one of the things that makes this film great is that it's one of his few films that works just fine without his effects. George Pal could have produced this with the same cast and script but without Harryhausen's (admittedly wonderful) special effects and it would still have been a delight. The acting, humor, production design, and music are all first rate. I am well aware that audiences of a certain age will consider this "cheesy" because it doesn't have the latest in (cheesy) CGI effects, and consequently will miss out on some great entertainment. They have my deepest sympathy.

This recent DVD re-release (May, 2003) now has Dolby 4.0 stereo along with a remarkable color restoration. While not up to today's Dolby (THX) standards the soundtrack and musical score are quite good for a vintage 1964 classic. The color of this version is actually better than what I remember in the theater and much better than any TV replays (which are quite rare for this film).

This was one of my all time favorite Harryhausen films as a kid and I'm glad to see it given a decent treatment to DVD. No spoilers here other than to say I still find this film as intriguing and interesting now as I did almost 40 years ago.

For pure fantasy buffs and sci-fi fans "First Men in the Moon" is a fun flick to enjoy.

Grab the popcorn, take the phone off the hook, and enjoy this DVD.

The effects may be dated, and the love interest a bit tedious at times, but Lionel(pre-Chitty Bang)Jeffries' whacky professor enthuses enough to keep the kids happy. Actually, the story-line isn't that bad at all (compared to more recent Sci-Fi offerings) and as an H.G. Wells rendering is actually quite good. I may have my rose-tinteds on though, I remember this with much affection as I saw it myself as a child of five or six in the early sixties. But, boys and girls, when they eventually get to the moon (or do they?) assure yourselves that as an exercise in escapism it's right up there with Jason and the Argonauts. And, after all, that's what movies are for - aren't they?

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!!

Of all of the animation genius Ray Harryhausen's films, this is my favourite, partly because I am a huge H G Wells fan, and also because I think the characterisation and acting are better than pretty well any of his other movies. Don't get me wrong, Harryhausen is a God... of model animation and sfx. But all too often his films, their amazing effects notwithstanding, are slightly pedestrian in feel (Jason and the Argonauts excepted). Anyway, back to First Men in the Moon...

As ever with an adaptation, liberties have been taken with the source material. In Wells's case this is understandable, as, in common with many of his novels, the narrative structure is slightly odd, and not best suited to the cinema. In the case of First Men in the Moon, in the novel, after Bedford leaves the moon by himself, having become separated from Cavor, we only learn about Cavor's own adventures through a fragmentary series of long wireless telegraph transmissions he makes from the lunar realm, intercepted by a (fictitious) Dutch radio pioneer, Julius Wendigee. Clearly, this rather passive device would be difficult to adapt, lacking, as it does, the necessary human engagement. An equally radical departure is the incorporation of a completely new character, Kate, Bedford's Bostonian fiancée. Obviously this was to sell the film in the US. However, she is a satisfyingly sparky presence, and does not detract from the action.

The modern framing device is superbly conceived and executed. One expects nothing less from the scriptwriter, the brilliant Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass fame, and a great Wells fan). The twist in the tale ending is a wonderful inversion of Wells's own conclusion to The War of the Worlds, and ends the film on a dark (some might say sour) note, surprising for a Harryhausen production.

There are some wonderful performances. Lionel Jeffries might be accused of going way over the top, but given the thin-line-between-madness-and-genius brilliance of his character, Cavor, such eccentricity is entirely plausible. And it certainly makes for an enjoyable performance. Cavor's pride when he unveils the Sphere to Bedford (Edward Judd) is a joy, and a lovely counterpoint to his usual near-hysteria in the earlier scenes (forgivable, one is tempted to say, as the character clearly becomes more stressed as the time for departure nears). Edward Judd is a muscular contrast to Cavor, an unthinking, instinctive man of action to Cavor's dithering intellectual. He also exhibits an unpleasant xenophobia on the moon. Nevertheless, in the novel Bedford can be quite violent, too, so one can blame Wells for the character's shortcomings, not Kneale. In fact, to digress, an interesting point is that in his novels Wells does not romanticize his first-person narrators. Bedford can be a brute, just as the unnamed narrator of The War of the Worlds is, by turns, cowardly and does not shrink from murder (or, at best, manslaughter) to protect himself. In short, his characters, for all their sketchiness, often act realistically. Judd's Bedford is also amusingly spivvish, a charming rogue, really more an anti-hero than anything else. His fevered dreams of commercial empire are just as they are in the book. Martha Hyer's Kate has been mentioned, and there are some amusing cameos. Miles Malleson is Miles Mallesonish as the registrar, as dithery and absent-minded as his bishop was in Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles. Cavor's workmen, with their proletarian slackness and petty demarcation of responsibilities, owe more to conservative 1960s fears of the growing power of the trades unions than to Wells, but provide amusing comic relief. Watch out, too, for a brief appearance by Peter Finch, then a huge star, as the bailiff who serves papers on Bedford, stepping in as a favour to the director to replace a bit-part player who failed to turn up at the last minute.

Of course, another dramatic change was to abandon Wells's breathable lunar surface. In the novel, during the lunar night the very air freezes to become slush on a barren surface. Come the day, and the frozen air melts, turns into an atmosphere, and giant mushrooms and other weird vegetation flourish briefly. Cinema audiences would laugh heartily. But Wells's sublunar civilization is preserved, so the change is not great. In the novel, much is made of the structure of the Selenite society. In fact, this was the main point of the book, Wells being interested in constructing an alien, rather ant-like, civilization - his anti-gravity paint Cavorite was merely a device, a pseudo-scientific deus ex machina, to get his narrators there without the bother of some massive engineering project, such as Verne's space cannon. The novel's bewildering multipicity of Selenite castes is jettisoned in the movie for simplicity, there being just workers and managers in the film, ruled over (as in the book) by the big-brained Grand Lunar. Although necessitated by the tight budget, this is rather a shame, as although it would be difficult to convey all the nuances of Wells's Selenite society, certain images would be marvelous on the screen: the small but large-lunged heralds with their trumpet-like mouths who precede the Grand Lunar on his procession; the immobile Selenite intellectuals whose vast jelly-like brains necessitate their transportation in sedan-chairs; the swift, spider-like messengers; the list goes on. The central point, though, that of adaptation to one's work, a kind of grotesque reductio ad absurdum of the Victorian class system, is not completely lost in the film, being echoed in the workers placed in suspended animation while they are not needed. Cavor's audience before the Grand Lunar, while condensing much of his speech in the book, nevertheless adheres to the spirit of it, especially in terms of his reckless honesty about the warlike tendencies of mankind.

In visual terms, the film is a delight. The Victorian flavour is evoked beautifully, the Sphere itself appearing to be a plausibly converted bathysphere. The modern moon landing is effective, lwjoslin of Houston pointing out on this site, quite rightly, the attempt to realize contemporary NASA design philosophy. The Selenite civilization is superbly presented, especially considering the low budget, with awesome caverns, spectacular lens pits, stark palaces carved from the lunar rock. And sparing as Ray's trademark Dynamation creations are, being restricted to a caterpillar-like mooncalf of leviathan proportions, a few Selenite intellectuals, and the shadowy Grand Lunar himself, they are no less accomplished for that. The mass of Selenite workers are played, somewhat obviously, by children in suits, but given when the film was made, one can hardly complain. And Laurie Johnson's music is magnificent, especially the swelling orchestration as Cavor slowly mounts the immense staircase on his way to his audience with the Grand Lunar.

Finally, I must praise the DVD release. Presented in widescreen, with a restored picture and stereo sound, it really does the film justice, and paralyses the poor VHS recording. Also, the one hour documentary extra 'The Harryhausen Chronicles' is a must-have, containing wonderful interviews with Ray, and extensive footage of his early 16mm experiments. There is also, for die-hard Wells fans, the clip of his 1949 trial film, in 16mm, of a tentacled Martian emerging from its smoking cylinder that Ray did to sell his abortive War of the Worlds project.

9 out of 10 times, when a movie fails, it fails because it does something stupid. Something gets placed into the movie that was never a good idea in the first place. Fortunately, this movie came back in the second act to redeem itself.

It's an idiotic first act that keeps this from being a better film. They never should have added a woman into the cast. She practically screams out, "I wasn't in the novel!" For the whole first act, she gets in the way, bothers people, meddles, does all the stupid and annoying things a stereotypical leading lady would do in a film like this that make us worry that we won't get to see what we want to see. And for what? To fill a role that never needed to be filled in the first place. We need jokes based on the differences between men and women to keep people interested in the movie. After all, we can't expect them to simply be interested in a voyage to the ****ing moon! To top things off, the first act (after the framing device, which I will come to later) thinks this movie is a comedy. The professor is introduced as a funny old eccentric, with tuba music underlining the supposedly funny aspects. For a time in the 50s and 60s, comedy stopped being funny. Tired stereotypes of women, the battle of the sexes, things like that took the place of clever writing. Thank god for French New Wave! Then there's the framing device. Our astronauts, who include representatives from the Soviet Union in a nice bit of forward-thinking, find the evidence of our heroes' adventures on the moon. Then U.N. representatives on Earth seek out our leading man, now many years older. People thought he was crazy, but no, his stories were true all along! Apparently what has endured in print was not good enough for these filmmakers. They couldn't just dive headlong into the story in the year 1899. No, they had to frame it. And then at the end, (skip if you want to find out for yourself,) they shamelessly steal the aliens-killed-by-earth-viruses twist from War of the Worlds.

Now, what the movie does do right is actually provide solidly fun action and adventure when it finally gets to it. Aliens, giant carnivorous caterpillars, fanciful sets in vivid color, men in alien suits, a gray and orange sphere hurtling through space, Ray Harryhausen creations. This is the stuff that dreams are made of! Plus the stupid comedy elements stop completely. This redeems the film after its fatally flawed first act.

Lionel Jeffreys is Dr. Cavor, a loony English inventor who takes Edward Judd and Martha Hyer along on a trip to the moon in 1899 in a sphere propelled by his anti-gravity paste ("cavorite"). The moon, at first, looks rather like the imaginations of 1964 would picture it -- barren, mountainous, and dark. The image of the distant earth had not yet acquired its stippling of white clouds.

It isn't long, though, before the intrepid trio discover one of those secret civilizations dwelling beneath the surface, where they've built a giant oxygen-producing machine that makes the atmosphere breathable. The society seems to be built around a three-caste system -- giant caterpillars, big furry soldiers, and technologically advanced eggheads. Conflict ensues. The trio escape and head back to earth for a happy landing.

I nodded out once or twice towards the end because the story wasn't actually gripping in any sense, though it was nice to see Ray Harryhausen's special effects. That monster caterpillar was pretty spooky.

The problem that fantasists like Wells, Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. Ryder Haggard had was that they generally had some illuminating intuitions about how to get from the ordinary to the fabulous, but then sometime stumbling while figuring out what to do once they reached the alien corn. Welles' "The Time Machine" was fine until we wound up with the pale and naive Eloi and the cannibalistic subterranean Morlocks when, unless you were clued in to the fact that Welles was trying to predict the future evolutionary status of the working class and the aristocrats, it seemed a little confusing and arbitrary. "The First Men on the Moon" has a similar problem. F/X aside, I kept thinking, "So what?", through the cerulean haze of stage one sleep.

Edward Judd, formerly of "The Day the Earth Caught Fire," was okay. And Martha Hyer gives her most animated performance on film, which is kind of like watching a digital clock click from one minute to the next. Lionel Jeffreys is more than your usual quirky scientist. (Miles Malleson, here as the Dymchurch registrar is quirky.) Jeffreys is positively manic, running around screaming, stumbling over things, repeating himself -- "I've got it! I've got it!" -- when he should be begging for lithium.

And the photography is great in many ways, images that are crisp and sharp, but a fable like this deserves to be bright, cheerful, and inviting, like George Pal's "The Time Machine." This fairy tale is dark, too dark, rendering every background object minatory. I mean, a murky hole in the ground filled with terrifying monsters is depressing. Reminds me of my childhood. The subdued lighting is expertly used in the scenes at Cherry Cottage, though, deep greens with the subtle pink of flowers in the shrubbery. And the rich score is impressive.

It's still a light-hearted and appealing movie, though. The kids ought to get a big kick out of it too.

Compared to "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which came out just a few years later), the special effects in "First Men in the Moon" are somewhat primitive. However, compared to the other sci-fi films of the 1950s and 60s, it is quite lovely--and a nice step forward. Aside from a few cheesy scenes here and there (such as VERY obvious wires used to make the astronauts seem to bounce due to the Moon's gravity and the cheesy alien costumes), the film is lovely and I wish I could have seen it on a big screen. The matte paintings were fantastic and some of the sets were wonderful. All this serves to give the film a nice look--one that overwhelms a story that, at times, is a bit weak.

The movie begins in the present time. A landing of Earth astronauts on the Moon is shocked when they discover relics left by an earlier landing--one made many decades earlier!! They are able to track down one of the people responsible for this prior moon flight and this elderly man is able to recount what had occurred. The rest of the film is an extended flashback.

It seems that a supposedly inventor (Lionel Jeffries--who was wonderful in the film) has created a serum that makes gravity disappear! And, using this 'Cavorite', he plans on eventually making a trip to the Moon. Joining him for the ride are an annoying woman and a man who likes to kill things--both are VERY weak characters, indeed. Their behaviors simply make little sense at times--reacting instead of thinking. I don't want to ruin the film by saying too much, but suffice to say that they find alien life on their journey! What exactly happens next is really up to you to find out yourself.

Aside from two dumb characters, occasionally cheesy effects and a story that occasionally drags, the film is a treat for the eyes and is quite enjoyable--particularly if you are a fan of sci-fi or the work of Ray Harryhausen.

I rate this one fairly high based upon the visual effects. The H G Wells novel is followed so faithfully that the script at times borders on the ridiculous. Still, it is quite an effort. 5 years before man went too the moon, this is not the first version of this, but it is the best visual of it.

There are some cave sequences of this which look very much like the caverns used in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. The images in this one and the sets are amazing. This one comes off as rather simplistic for todays audience.

Martha Hyer and Lionel Jeffries are the best known members of the cast. Though it is dated, it is quite watchable.

Judging by the comments of my fellow IMDb contributers it seems FIRST MEN IN THE MOON is a film that doesn't cheat the memory . If for example you loved this movie as a kid you'll still love it as an adult . I'm afraid I have to disagree with this groundswell of opinion because I too loved this movie as a child but watching it again today I came very close to switching it off on a couple of occasions

Why ? Well let's look at the story structure . The opening contains a hook of the first manned flight to the moon where a British union flag is found and it's discovered that Senior citizen Arnold Bedford was in fact part of an expedition who had visited the moon several decades earlier . So far so good but then the film spends almost a whole hour back in Victorian England setting up the characters of Bedford , eccentric inventor Joseph Carvor and Kate Callender . You'll spend most of this running time trying to work out if Carvor is more irritating than Kate in much the same way as historians debate if Stalin was a worse dictator than Hitler . It's not helped by the performances of Jeffries and Hyer

Things do radically improve when the trio take a long awaited trip to the moon and it's very easy to see why so many people fondly remember this film . You could complain that the selenites are obviously small of stature ( Child ? ) actors dressed in cloth , some of the sets are unconvincing etc but at least director Nathan Juran has tried - And to a certain degree succeeded - in bringing a sense of wonder to the movie . It should also be pointed out that the special effects are very impressive for their day and still hold up well . Also take note of the eldritch sound effects for some of the scenes set in the selenite base and the chilling voice of the Grand Lunar

This is certainly a film of two halves and its glowing reputation is all down to the second half . It's also a film where the effects from Ray Harryhausen are more important than the story structure . It's a film that will almost certainly disappoint fans of the original novel and will equally disappoint fans of co-writer Nigel Kneale whose work here lacks the compelling intelligence of much of his other work

Five years before the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touch down on the moon, this film adaption of the H.G. Wells story First Men in the Moon came to the screen. A moon expedition has finally landed and to the amazement of all a perfectly preserved union jack is found and presumably claiming this large piece of real estate for the United Kingdom.

And a diary with three names in it gives the names of those people who were on this first lunar expedition. One of them is still alive and in a nursing home in Great Britain. It's Edward Judd, now in his eighties or nineties as you'd have it and he has an amazing adventure to tell.

I use the phrase deliberately because such an amazing adventure is the kind of stuff Stephen Spielberg would find ideal. And if he reads this, maybe he'll think on it as a future project. But if he does it, it will have to be without the special special effects of Ray Harryhausen who created an enchanting, but very dangerous world on the moon.

Judd's story is how he and his fiancé Martha Hyer got involved with an eccentric scientist Lionel Jeffries. Jeffries may look eccentric as he usually does in his roles, but he's developed nothing less than a totally unique form of propulsion and he knows what he wants to do with it. Nothing less than a trip to the moon.

Like Jeanette Macdonald in Maytime or Gloria Stuart in Titanic, Judd from the man's point of view tells the story of his lost love Hyer and that unique trip to the moon. As to what happens there and what happens to Jeffries, Judd, and Hyer you have to see the film for that.

Since it's a Ray Harryhausen film you kind of know what to expect and Harryhausen delivers in grand style.

It almost makes you believe that it was Judd, Jeffries, and Hyer who took that one small step for man first.

Warning: spoilers!!

This is a charming and very entertaining piece of science-fiction/fantasy. It has a literate screenplay (by Nigel Kneale, author of the Quatermass stories) which manages to combine fun with the more serious ideas of Wells's novel.

There are some sly digs at science itself. Modern-day astronauts nervously check "environment telemetry" before leaving their computer-equipped lunar module. Our heroes leave their 1899 craft dressed in diving suits. After all "What keeps water out, keeps air in" - simple!

The inhumanity of lunar society (with its strict division of labour and the enforced suspended animation of the 'unemployed') is shown without slowing down the action. This reflects Wells's concerns and his use of the Selenites as a warning of the growing inhumanity he saw on Earth (the Morlocks in 'The Time Machine' are another example).

The characters are well drawn and Lionel Jeffries never fails to move me as he makes his fateful decision to stay on the moon, true to his need to learn and placing himself as a hostage for the human race.

A 1964 moon landing discovers they were not the first men to arrive there. Turns out there was an 1899 expedition to the moon. Upon investigating, they find the only living member (Edward Judd) of that voyage. He tells the tale of how he and his fiancée (Martha Hyer) accompanied brilliant scientist Professor Cavor (Lionel Jeffries) to the moon through use of a special gravity-defying substance called Cavorite. Once there, they encounter an insectoid race of creatures known as Selenites. It's a fun old-fashioned sci-fi adventure. Beautiful sets, great Ray Harryhausen special effects and a script by venerable Nigel Kneale, adapted from the story by H.G. Wells. Most of Wells' social commentary is absent from the film. Some of it is still present, particularly in one of the film's best scenes -- Cavor's talk with the leader of the Selenites, the Grand Lunar.

One year after arranging for the near destruction of the Earth by invaders from Mars (1898), H.G.Wells turned the story around and had humans invade another heavenly body - the moon. THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, written in 1899, created a bit of controversy when it appeared. Jules Verne was still alive, and he had some proprietary interests in the Moon, as he sent three men (two Americans and a Frenchmen) to the moon in 1865 (FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON), and returned them to earth in a sequel in 1870 (AROUND THE MOON), and - although most people don't recall it - had the Americans and their gun club associates try to use the "Columbiad" cannon to affect the earth's tilt (in THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE in 1889).

Verne's moon cannon and projectile, despite some amazing predictions regarding it's physical location and the time to reach the moon (four days), is now known to be erroneous due to the power of the explosion to reduce the projectile to dust. But it was cutting edge science in 1865, and it was based on everyday physical items of use, like gun-cotton and steel. Verne dismissed his English rival's work, asking where M. Wells found his Cavorite. The reply of Wells is not known.

Actually, Wells does tackle the subject of Cavorite a little towards the last page (literally) of the novel. Cavor, in his final moments of desperation for help from his fellow men, tries to send the formula for Cavourite, and we learn it is based on hydrogen (the lightest of all elements). However, Cavor stops the transmission, probably cornered by the Selenites, with a final message of "Uless", meaning probably "Useless." The film version does expand the story quite well, especially in the performances of Lionel Jeffries as Joseph Cavor, Edward Judd as Arnold Bedford, and Martha Hyer as Kate Callender. Jeffries normally played comic parts (like his dim-witted policemen in TWO WAY STRETCH and THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW). He did do overly excitable dramatic characters, like his Marquiss of Queensbury in Peter Finch's film about Oscar Wilde. But Cavor may have been his best acting job, as he ends up sacrificing himself to save Judd and Hyer, and to somehow restrain the thousands of Selenites who seek mankind's destruction. His act is also one of guilt, as his overly chatty admissions about the militarism and destructive activities of human beings brings about the final decisions to destroy man by the Selenite people.

Judd's career was mostly in science fiction. He rarely had one of the three leads in a film, and he makes the most of it as he blindly goes ahead financing Cavor's anti-gravity experiments, despite warnings of how dangerous they are (with the collapsing smokestack of Cavor's chimney as a reminder). He also, by not leveling with his girlfriend Hyer, gets her tangled up in the trip to the moon, and ends up endangering her as well as Jeffries and himself.

Ms Hyer's performance is not in the original story (as Arlene Dahl's appearance in the film version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH is not in that book either. It was thrown in to make the story more scary, as there were now three intrepid explorers to the Moon, one of whom was female. It really was not needed, but it was a good move, as Ms Hyer turns out to be a welcome addition to the cast. She has one moment of unintentional comedy. The Selenites are examining their unwanted visitors, and we see a screen (some type of x-ray device) and a skeleton on the screen (a full skeleton. We hear Ms Hyer talking angrily about being violated, and she walks out from in back of the screen - her clothes all on. The violation was the x-ray machine revealing so much (her skeleton?).

Ray Harryhausen adds to his memorable stable of animated clay figures with his moon cow - a centipede type monster that the space travelers manage to kill. We see the Selenites strip it of it's meat, leaving a large skeleton behind.

Altogether a superior science fiction film.

The DVD version of First men in the moon is finally here! Like many vintage films thats been availible over the years in VHS and special edition Laser discs. You never know how the studio is going to treat the dvd version. Well, someone at Columbia must like this film as much as I do! Why? Because, not only was this copy remastered in hi definition and keeping the 2.35:1 widescreen, but thay remixed the sound in 4.0 surround. The movie on a large home theatre is awesome. I can't wait when the High definition version is released

Nathan Juran directed this adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel that stars Lionel Jeffries as Inventor Joseph Cavor, who creates a method to propel his sphere into space by deflecting the gravitational pull of the Earth. He blasts off to the moon with another man and a woman on board(played by Edward Judd and Martha Hyer). Once there, they encounter an insect-like race that is most curious yet suspicious of these visitors, and whose intentions are not so benign... Framing device of modern day astronauts finding the British flag left behind by Cavor is amusing, but film is overly comedic and inconsequential. Only the fine F/X of Ray Harryhausen give it any distinction. Mostly for kids.

1899. Dotty and excitable scientist Joseph Cavor (a marvelously hearty performance by Lionel Jeffries), dashing young Arnold Bedford (likable Edward Judd), and Arnold's feisty fiancé Katherine "Kate" Callender (a sweeting and appealing turn by the lovely Martha Hyer) travel to the moon in a sphere invented by Cavor. The trio discover a strange race of insect-like aliens living beneath the moon's surface. Director Nathan Juran, working from a smart and imaginative script by Nigel Kneale and Jan Read, treats the story with admirable sincerity, maintains a steady pace throughout, adds a good deal of pleasantly amusing lighthearted humor, and ably crafts a strong sense of genuine awe and wonder. Granted, the opening half drags a bit (it takes over forty minutes for our engaging protagonists to even get to the moon), but fortunately Jeffries' considerable vitality and twinkling screen presence stops things from ever becoming dull. Naturally, Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation creations are as impressively fluid, graceful, and enchanting as ever, with a giant predatory caterpillar rating as the single most gnarly being. The crisp cinematography by Wilkie Cooper and Harry Gilliam boasts a few snazzy visuals flourishes and offers plenty of neat shots of the desolate lunar landscape. Laurie Johnson provides an extremely classy and flavorsome score which never becomes too overwrought or obtrusive. A really nice and entertaining movie.

This 1964 production has several things going for it: an interesting premise of 19th century astronauts exploring the moon, the always-satisfying special effects from master creator Ray Harryhausen, and a great Laurie Johnson score. Though Bernard Herrmann was originally sought for the production, the studio couldn't afford his asking price; thus, Johnson filled in and produced a great accompaniment for the on-screen activities.

The first half of the movie is a bit light, as it deals with Mr. Cavor (Lionel Jeffries), developer of "Cavorite" and his recruitment of Mr. Bedford (Edward Judd) and his fiancé' "Kate" in the planning of an excursion to the moon. The humor is adequate but the movie doesn't really "lift off," literally until the moon ship heads for the moon.

Upon arrival on the moon, the crew meets the inhabitant, the ant-like "Selenites" and their fantastic world below the moon's surface. An encounter with a "moon calf," along with an "audience" with the Selenite leader, are just two of the marvelous effects in this movie.

Though not one of the best of Harryhausen's works, it is still an enjoyable treat for sci-fi fans and a family film that stands the test of time.

This was the first Science Fiction Movie I ever saw,and it still holds up.Lionel Jefferies is excellent as Cavor-and Edward Judd provides good contrast as Arnold Bedford.The framing sequence was a good way to set up modern readers for an account of a trip to the moon in 1899.

The film is not exactly like the book,but the book was actualy written in the early 20th Century-when knowledge of the moon was limited.The film does away with the really impossible things Wells imagines about the moon,but retains the idea of an ant-like colony of workers living below the moon's surface.

The way to explain the disappearance of the Selenties by the late 1960s was also done in an ingenious and realistic fashion which Wells himself used in one of his later novels.

Possibly due to its being shown seemingly every other Saturday afternoon when I was a kid in the early 70's, I was hugely burned-out on this movie at an early age. I guess it was the let down of expecting this movie to be more "The Thing" or "Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers" than what it was.

Let me not diminish Harryhausen's contributions, but they seemed a bit under-whelming here, perhaps due to them being used sparingly.

But my main beef with this film is this: I didn't care a scintilla for any of the main characters! We have a nutty professor, a woman who's "marry me, or else" attitude is nauseating and and our "hero", a meandering playwright, investor (gambler?), squatter...who knows what else? I didn't care if these people made it to or off the moon or not. Let the bugs have at 'em.

This movie is not a thriller, not moody or atmospheric, just silly and uninteresting. Again, this opinion is largely due to this movie popping up in the TV Guide too many times for my liking 35 years ago, taking up valuable viewing opportunities for "Frankenstein" or "The Invisible Man."

This movie seems to have been designed to put audiences to sleep. To start with, the prologue, in which international astronauts discover, on the first lunar landing, that Victorian era explorers already walked on the moon, is the best part of the movie. It's downhill from there and it takes an hour or so for the first Harryhausen monster to appear. When it does, it just ambles around and roars and then is dispatched with no drama. Poor acting adds to the film's woes -- Lionel Jeffries should be scolded in particular for his mugging and constant scene-stealing (just watch that man's eyebrows, wow!). Interesting script can't make a good film without any help from cast and crew.