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. 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. 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. 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 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. Their behaviors simply make little sense at times-reacting instead of thinking. Joining him for the ride are an annoying woman and a man who likes to kill things-both are VERY weak characters, indeed. 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. The rest of the film is an extended flashback. 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.
All this serves to give the film a nice look-one that overwhelms a story that, at times, is a bit weak. The matte paintings were fantastic and some of the sets were wonderful.
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.
However, compared to the other sci-fi films of the 1950s and 60s, it is quite lovely-and a nice step forward. See the first steps on the Moon as people saw them on TV.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. He was in the Command Module working.Īpollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Then, the Eagle went back to meet astronaut Collins. They picked up rocks and dirt to bring back to Earth. Image above: The first footprints on the Moon will be there for a million years. More people watched this Moon landing than any other show on TV. So, people all over the world watched when it happened. It was the first human footprint on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong put his left foot on the rocky Moon. What did they say when they landed on the moon? "The Eagle has landed." Eagle was the name of the Lunar Module. Then Armstrong and Aldrin took the Lunar Module to the Moon. Credit: NASAĪ few days later, Apollo 11 began to orbit around the Moon. Image above: Buzz stands in front of the Lunar Module named Eagle. They were Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins. One day in July, Apollo 11 launched towards the Moon. The goal was to send people to the Moon and back.