First Men in the Moon

First Men in the Moon (1964) is a British science-fiction adventure from H.G. Wells you can watch online on iFILM. Released five years before Apollo actually touched down, it opens with a cheeky twist: a modern international crew lands on the Moon and finds a tattered Union Jack and a note claiming the place for Queen Victoria.

So who got there first? The document leads investigators to a frail old man named Bedford, the last survivor of a Victorian expedition. His memories carry the film back to the 1890s, when eccentric inventor Cavor brewed a substance that cancels gravity and packed himself and two companions into a homemade sphere bound for the Moon. Beneath the dusty surface waited a whole civilization of insect-like Selenites.

Nathan Juran directed, but the real headliner is stop-motion wizard Ray Harryhausen, whose hands bring the lunar creatures and a towering caterpillar to life. Today it plays as a charming retro-sci-fi ride — quaint by current standards, yet inventive and full of pluck. Anyone who loves vintage pulp adventure and pre-CGI craft will have a good time. Stream First Men in the Moon (1964) online on iFILM.