DVD Of The Week: HG Wells' First Men In The Moon (1964)

It's the early 1960s and a multinational United Nations space flight to the Moon believes it is making man's first expedition to our planet's satellite... until they discover a tattered old British flag and the remains of a document dated 1899.

When the information is "beamed" back to Earth, an investigative team sets off to trace the woman mentioned in the document and end up in Dymchurch, on the South Coast of England, where clues lead them to a nursing home and an old man called Arnold Bedford (Edward Judd).

Horrified to discover that man has (once more) landed on the moon, Bedford then recounts the tale of how he - a struggling playwright, wannabe businessman and part-time con artist - his American fiancee (Martha Hyer) and their eccentric neighbour, the 'mad' scientist Joseph Cavor (Lionel Jeffries) ended up being the "first men in the moon".

Cavor had invented a metallic paste that, when hardened, made objects weightless; and he used it to coat the sails of a 'travel sphere' he built in his greenhouse - with the express aim of going to the moon!

Unfortunately when our Victorian pioneers get there, they find the place isn't deserted, but home to a race of insect creatures called Selentites.

After the initial 'shocking discovery' by the 60s' astronauts, it's a good three-quarters of an hour - half the film - before Bedford and his colleagues actually set foot on the moon, and despite the gentle humourous banter between the characters, there's no denying that we really want to get to the lunar action.

However, once there, with the combination of charming Victorian scientific naivety and the genius of special effects-meister Ray Harryhausen, HG Wells' First Men In The Moon stands up surprisingly well, despite its age.

Sure, you can sometimes see the strings when the explorers are jumping about in zero gravity and the CSO/green screening is quite obvious, but the movie is 45 years old.

Nevertheless, the script by Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass) and Jan Read has a timeless intelligence about it that sees Cavor trying to teach the Selenites about the best of humanity while the belligerent Bedford introduces them to the human propensity for violence with his "hit first, ask questions later" attitude to the aliens which borders on xenophobic racism.

The final third of the film, under the surface of the Moon, is incredible, regardless of the slightly dated effects, with the human interaction with the various castes of the Selenite civilization: from the multitudinous skittering drones to the more intelligent scientists and finally the quizzical supreme leader who - like Cavor - wants to find out all he can about this strange new species he has encountered.

HG Wells' First Men In The Moon is a wonderful film that rises above its Boys Own Adventure roots thanks to a first-rate script, that proves, like many Doctor Who stories - and other decent science-fiction works - that man is the real monster in these circumstances.