First Men in the Moon (1964 film)
| First Men in the Moon | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Directed by | Nathan H. Juran |
| Produced by | Charles H. Schneer |
| Screenplay by |
Nigel Kneale Jan Read |
| Based on |
The First Men in the Moon 1901 (novel) by H. G. Wells |
| Starring |
Edward Judd Martha Hyer Lionel Jeffries |
| Music by | Laurie Johnson |
| Cinematography | Wilkie Cooper |
| Edited by | Maurice Rootes |
|
Production
company |
Ameran Films
|
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
|
Release date
|
6 August 1964(UK) |
|
Running time
|
103 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,650,000 (US/Canada) |
First Men in the Moon is a 1964 British Technicolor science fiction film, produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Nathan Juran, that stars Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, and Lionel Jeffries. It is an adaptation by science fiction scriptwriter Nigel Kneale of H. G. Wells' 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Ray Harryhausen provided the stop-motion animation effects, which include the Selenites, giant caterpillar-like "Moon Cows", and the big-brained Prime Lunar.
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 Union Jack 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 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. While 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). Bedford attacks a group of Selenites in fear -- killing several, despite Cavor's horrified protests. 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.
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