The First Men in the Moon (1919 film)
6.5 /10 2 Votes7
Story by H. G. Wells Language English intertitles | 7.1/10 IMDb Genre Fantasy Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Director Bruce GordonJ. L. V. Leigh Release date 1919 (1919) Writer R. Byron Webber, H.G. Wells (novel) Directors J.L.V. Leigh, Bruce Gordon Screenplay H. G. Wells, R. Byron Webber Genres Silent film, Science Fiction, Indie film, Black-and-white Distributed by Gaumont British (UK) Color Black and White Sound mix Silent Aspect ratio 1.33 : 1 Similar First Men in the Moon (1964 film), A Trip to the Moon, The Airship Destroyer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The first men in the moon by h g wells
The First Men in the Moon (1919) is a black-and-white silent film, directed by Bruce Gordon and J. L. V. Leigh. The film is based on H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The First Men in the Moon (1901). There have been many subsequent adaptations of Well's novel on film, radio and video.
Contents
As of August 2010, the film is not held in the BFI National Archive and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" list of lost films. Stills from the production and a plot synopsis exist.
Plot
The synopsis from The Bioscope trade paper of 5 June 1919 reads as follows:
In the company of Rupert Bedford, a grasping speculator, Samson Cavor, an elderly inventor-scientist, ascends to the Moon in a sphere coated with 'Cavorite', a substance which has the property of neutralizing the law of gravity. After strange adventures with the 'Selenites' (the inhabitants of the Moon), Bedford villainously deserts the professor and returns to Earth alone in order to make a fortune for himself out of Cavorite. By means of wireless telegraphy, however, Hogben, a young engineer in love with Cavor's niece, Susan, succeeds in getting in touch with the stranded inventor, who denounces Bedford and states that he has been amicably received by the Grand Lunar, overlord of the Selenites. Susan thereupon indignantly rejects the proposals of Bedford, who has represented it as Cavor's last wish that she should marry him, and, instead, accepts Hogben as her husband.
Notability
Robert Godwin recognizes the film as "the first movie to be entirely based on a renowned science fiction novel." Nevertheless, "Frankenstein," which loosely adapted Mary Shelley's novel of the same name, was released in 1910. This earlier production, which is also now considered lost, had a duration of merely 16 minutes.
Cast
References
The First Men in the Moon (1919 film) WikipediaThe First Men in the Moon (1919 film) IMDbThe First Men in the Moon (1919 film) themoviedb.org