Arnold Bedford - A financially troubled playwright who decides to join his outlandish neighbor in going to the moon. Things quickly turn sour for Arnold up on Earth's satellite, but he manages to escape back to terra firma with his future bride in tow.

Ray Harryhausen is in my opinion, a national treasure, and that's why the Rogues decided to devote an entire Roundtable to him. For decades, Harryhausen had wowed audiences with his masterful special and visual effects, and much of his work still holds up today. Case in point, First Men in the Moon, which is based on the story by H.G. Wells. (Author of a multitude of sci-fi/fantasy tales, including The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds and many more.) The film begins with the arrival of the first men on the moon (circa the mid-1960's). The astronauts, sent by the U.N., make a startling discovery only moments after they hit the surface. They find a small British flag, and a note which claims the moon in the name of Queen Victoria!

A U.N. Scientific Intelligence Committee is formed, and with the aid of said note, they soon track down an old and frail Arnold Bedford. Once he learns that others have ventured to the moon, he begins to tell his amazing tale. Back in 1899, Arnold was a struggling playwright with a lot of debts. He retreated to a secluded cottage in Dymchurch in order to hide from bill collectors and possibly even write a new play. At his side was his lovely yet naive fiance Katherine Callender. She trusts Arnold so much that he easily manages to hide his financial woes with a barrage of little white lies. He claims that he inherited the cottage from his dead aunt and is thinking of selling it to pay off a few debts, when in truth, he's renting the cottage from the someone else! To further complicate matters, Katherine manages to find a buyer for the house while Arnold is away one afternoon.

The odd gentlemen across the road, Joseph Cavor gladly wishes to buy the cottage due to his somewhat dangerous experiments. Once Arnold finds out, he's exasperated and quickly heads over to Cavor's home, where he gets a firsthand look at the professor's monumental creation: "Cavorite." The material is a molten metal that, when dried, eliminates the pull of gravity on whatever it's coating. After a brief demonstration involving a chair, Arnold decides to financially back Cavor's invention. Wait a minute, where's Arnold going to get the money for that?! Well he uses "his" cottage for collateral of course, and has Katherine sign it over to Cavor. (Of course it's legal dear!) After a little more testing and lots of preparation, Cavor and Bedford are ready to put the Cavorite to the test by painting it onto a spherical ball of steel. By doing so, they plan on going to the moon!

Things pretty much go as planned, but a certain Katherine "monkey wrench" Callender manages to change all of that. Arnold's little con game with the cottage is discovered by authorities and Katherine receives a legal summons ("We'll see you in court.") She immediately goes over to Cavor's place, full of feminine rage. She marches into Cavor's greenhouse and begins banging on the side of the sphere. Luckily for her, Arnold opens the hatch and pulls her into the vessel mere seconds before it takes off. At this point, the film is halfway over and the main characters aren't even on the moon yet! But have no fear, they do eventually arrive at their destination (after nearly barreling into the sun, thanks to a bit of foolishness on Katherine's part) and the movie's pace begins to quicken.

Katherine is left in the sphere while Cavor and Arnold venture outside (in deep sea diving gear no less). Cavor plants a British flag with a note nearby, then enjoys the low gravity of the moon, hopping high into the air (with the aid of a clearly discernible wire). Not far from their landing spot, our two intrepid astronauts discover a large crystalline structure that's covering the mouth of a crater. Cavor accidentally slips and falls through the crystals, dragging Arnold with him. Once inside, they discover a huge underground tunnel and also find that the air down there is breathable! As they venture further into the labyrinth of tunnels, Cavor and Arnold run afoul of the local populace of the moon: The Selenites! These insect-like beings surround the two earthlings only to find that us humans do not like to be cornered. Arnold starts wrestling with the creatures and tosses several of them off of a rocky ledge and into a river of bubbling blue slime.

The remainder of the Selenite greeting party retreats, allowing Cavor and Arnold to return above. The two of them go back to the landing site, only to find that the sphere is gone! It turns out that those pesky Selenites have dragged the sphere into one of their underground tunnels (a la The Time Machine). Arnold and Cavor then venture back into bug city, to seek out their ship and Katherine. During their search, Arnold and Cavor are attacked by a gigantic caterpillar monster. It nearly manages to devour both men, but the Selenites soon arrive and blast the giant creature with a laser cannon. This is probably one of the best special effects scenes in the film as well. The "Moon Cow" caterpillar is a very cool creation and Harryhausen's animation is superb!

After the mighty caterpillar is finished off, Cavor is captured and placed in a holding cell with Katherine where both are studied and questioned. Cavor, his mind going into scientific overload, begins to want to stay on the moon to learn more about this advanced civilization. In the meantime, Arnold is skulking about the tunnels and discovers the sphere, or rather what's left of it. Those darned curious Selenites have disassembled a good chunk of the vessel and apparently don't plan on letting the human visitors leave. Later, Cavor is led to the chamber of the Selenite leader where he is thoroughly questioned, especially about war. While this scene could have been a poignant moment in the film, speaking out about the hyprocrisy of war, it doesn't really amount to anything but extra padding.

When the conversation turns to the arrival of more humans, Cavor comforts the sentient insect by telling it that only he knows the secret of Cavorite.Not fully satisfied, the Leader demands that Cavor and his friends never leave. Cavor agrees to this just seconds before Arnold appears with his elephant gun (conveniently brought along by Katherine). Arnold goes ballistic, fires at the Leader (who happens to be behind some sort of force field), and begins battling more than half the Selenite population. He fends them off and then grabs Cavor and forcibly escorts him to the sphere. While Cavor was having his chat with the Selenite overlord, Arnold managed to put most of the craft back together, but for some reason the shutters on it aren't working. (Note: The shutters have Cavorite on them and allow the ship to be steered through space by opening and closing said shutters.) Cavor quickly fixes the problem and sees Katherine and Arnold off.

The film now jumps forward again as Arnold Bedford finishes his fantastic tale. Apparently when he and Katherine made it back to Earth, they landed in a body of water. They escaped, but the sphere sank, thus ruining any validation of their story. His story now told, Arnold, the U.N. investigators, and an army of intrusive reporters sit around a television and watch a live broadcast of the moon exploration. The once grand cities beneath the moon's surface are now deserted and crumbling. Theory has it that Cavor transmitted a disease (bacterial or viral) to the Selenite populace. Since the Selenites more than likely had no immune systems, they all got sick and died out (a la War of the Worlds). As the film comes to an end, Arnold gazes up to outer space with his telescope and views the U.N. spacecraft hovering over the moon. (Wait, that's just a regular telescope! How can he see that far with it?!)

First Men in the Moon was directed by Nathan Juran, who had previously worked with Ray Harryhausen on several films, namely 20,000,000 Miles to Earth and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Juran did a great job with this film and used the lunar landscapes and Selenite structures to great effect, further accentuating Harryhausen's fantastic stop-motion animation. The film boasts a great musical score that was composed by Laurie Johnson (who is best remembered for supplying the musical themes for T.V.'s The Avengers. Laurie has also composed music for the cult classics Dr. Strangelove and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter).

The acting in First Men in the Moon is quite good. Lionel Jeffries steals the show as Joseph Cavor, but he quickly becomes annoying due to his character's repetitive speech. ("I know, I know." "All right, all right." "It's absolutely imperial!" "Absolutely imperial!" ARGH! Once is enough! Someone please get this man some ridilin!) The only thing that truly hurt the film was its slow and sometimes plodding pace. Viewers have to wait a full hour before the characters arrive on the moon and have close encounters with its alien denizens. Despite the movie's slow first half, it's an overall great sci-fi flick and a real treat for science fiction lovers and Harryhausen fans alike.