First Men in the Moon (1964 film)

Infobox Film
name = First Men in the Moon


image_size =
caption =
director = Nathan H. Juran
producer = Charles H. Schneer
writer = Nigel Kneale (screenplay)
H.G. Wells (story)
narrator =
starring = Lionel Jeffries
Edward Judd
Martha Hyer
music = Laurie Johnson
cinematography = Wilkie Cooper
editing = Maurice Roots
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = November 20, 1964
runtime = 103 mins
country = UK
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:17495
imdb_id = 0058100

"First Men in the Moon" is a 1964 science fiction film directed by Nathan H. Juran. The film is an adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel "The First Men in the Moon" and is also known as "H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon". (The title of the novel includes the word "the" twice; the film titles only once). The novel was adapted for the screen by the noted science-fiction scriptwriter Nigel Kneale.

Ray Harryhausen provides stop-motion effects, animated Selenites, giant caterpillar-like "Moon Cows", and a big-brained Prime Lunar.

Tagline: "H.G. Wells' Astounding Adventure in Dynamation!"

Cast

*Edward Judd ... Bedford
*Martha Hyer ... Kate
*Lionel Jeffries ... Cavor
*Miles Malleson ... Dymchurch registrar
*Norman Bird ... Stuart, Moon landing crew
*Gladys Henson ... Mental hospital matron
*Hugh McDermott ... Richard Challis, UN Space Agency
*Betty McDowall ... Margaret Hoy, UN Space Agency
*Huw Thomas* ... Announcer
*Erik Chitty* ... Gibbs
*Peter Finch* ... Bailiff's man

* Not credited on-screen.

Plot

In 1964, the United Nations has launched a rocket flight to the Moon. Mr. Bedford is an old man in a mental hospital, and his claims to have been on the Moon are dismissed as an insane delusion. The mental hospital staff prevent him from watching the television reports of the expedition because, according to the matron, it "excites him".

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 Union Flag on the Moon's surface and a note naming Bedford and Cavor, claiming the Moon for Queen Victoria. UN authorities trace the aged Bedford; their representatives question him about the Moon and he tells them his story. The rest of the film, as a flashback, shows what Cavor and Bedford did in the 1890s.

In 1899, Arnold Bedford and his girlfriend 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 insect-oid population, the Selenites, living beneath the surface. (Oddly, Cavor knows on first seeing one of the creatures that they are called Selenites, but it is never explained "how" he knows this. Alternatively, it may be inferred that he invents the name on the spot 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. 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, only to find it deserted and decaying. Moments later, the ruined city starts to crumble and collapse, forcing the landing crew to beat a hasty retreat, and seconds later is completely destroyed. Bedford realises that the Selenites must have been killed off by Cavor's common cold viruses to which they had no immunity.

pacesuits used

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 are used as spacesuits. No provision is made to prevent suit ballooning in space vacuum, or to protect the hands from space vacuum. The film depicts the 1960s astronaut spacesuits as run-of-the-mill film prop spacesuits with as backpack air or oxygen supply a 1960s-type aqualung cylinder each instead of a NASA-type life support backpack.

Cavor and Bedford have no radio and must make their helmets touch each other to talk in the vacuum. It is not clear whether the Selenites have radio. The history of radio was only just starting when the 1890s events were set.

Interesting Facts

*In the book, the Moon has an atmosphere and surface vegetation.
*There is no female character of any significance in the original novel. In the book, Bedford and Cavor travel to the Moon without a female companion. Katherine 'Kate' Callender was invented in order to give the movie a leading lady.
*In the novel, Cavorite is a solid metal (not a paste) which is established to be an alloy containing helium. Helium is a noble gas; at the time when Wells's novel was published (1901), noble gases were understood to be the only elements with zero valence: a noble gas could not form compounds with other elements. In the late twentieth century, methods were developed which forced noble gases into compounds.
*A Selenite uses a raygun. The only weapon that the humans have is an elephant rifle.
*In the book, the Selenites show no interest in conquering Earth, and in fact it is the Selenites who are threatened with colonization by Earth humans.
*In the book, the Selenites were not killed off at the end; this was a plot twist borrowed from the fate of the Martians at the end of "The War of the Worlds".
*The actor Peter Finch appears briefly in the movie (uncredited) as a bailiff's man – a role that was not in the original novel. This part was not intended as a cameo performance for Finch, a major actor at the time. He just happened to be nearby when the scene was about to be shot, and when the minor actor originally cast did not arrive, Finch offered to do the scene.

ee also

*List of stop-motion films