First Men in the Moon

An international crew lands on the moon and believes they are the first. On the surface they find something: a British flag and a document with a name on it. The document is dated 1899. On Earth the person of that name is sought and found; Arnold Bedford is very old, lives in a home, and nobody has believed him. The narrative goes back. As a young man Bedford met a scientist in the country; Cavor had made a substance that cut off gravity, and they built a sphere and decided to go to the moon. Nathan Juran directs. The visual effects are by Ray Harryhausen. The source is H. G. Wells's novel. The effects were made with Harryhausen's known technique; the creatures beneath the moon were shot by moving them frame by frame. The frame is an addition to the novel; there is no space age in the book and the film starts the story from the present. The satire in Wells's text is largely kept; Bedford is thinking of money, Cavor of science, and neither can see the outcome. The ending carries the idea of the book: what comes from Earth is not only people. It was shot for a wide screen and the exteriors were prepared in England. Its limit is pace; the first half is slow and the comic sections break up the narrative. Who it is for: viewers who like classic science fiction and Harryhausen's work. Who it is not for: the effects are old, the narrative slow, and the characters thin.