The First Men in the Moon (1919 film)

The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon
	The British film The First Men in the Moon (1919), adapted from H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, was the first science-fiction full length movie but is currently deemed lost.
Directed by	Bruce Gordon; J. L. V. Leigh
Written by	R. Byron Webber ; H. G. Wells (novel)
Starring	Bruce Gordon; Heather Thatcher; Lionel d'Aragon
Distributed by	Gaumont British (UK)
Release date	1919;
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English intertitles

The First Men in the Moon is a 1919 black-and-white silent film, directed by Bruce Gordon and J. L. V. Leigh. The film was based on H. G. Wells' 1901 science fiction novel The First Men in the Moon.

As of August 2010, the film is not held in the BFI National Archive and is listed on the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" list of lost films.^[1] Stills from the production and a plot synopsis exist.^[2]

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.^[1]

Notability

Robert Godwin credits the film as "the first movie to ever be based entirely on a famous science fiction novel."^[2] Frankenstein, a loose adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 eponymous novel, however, had appeared in 1910, with a running time of 14 minutes, and Universal Pictures released a full-length feature film of Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas in 1916.

Cast

Bruce Gordon as Hogben
Heather Thatcher as Susan
Hector Abbas as Sampson Cavor
Lionel d'Aragon as Rupert Bedford
Cecil Morton York as Grand Lunar

References

^ ^a ^b "The First Men in the Moon / BFI Most Wanted". London: British Film Institute. 23 December 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020 – via Internet Archive.
^ ^a ^b Robert Godwin, H.G. Wells The First Men in the Moon: the Story of the 1919 Film, Apogee Space Books, ISBN 978-1926837-31-4- see web page at Apogee books (retrieved 5 May 2014).

External links

BFI 75 Most Wanted entry, with extensive notes (published 23 December 2010, retrieved the from Internet Archive on 23 June 2020)
The First Men in the Moon at IMDb

[BFI-1] "The First Men in the Moon / BFI Most Wanted". London: British Film Institute. 23 December 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020 – via Internet Archive.

[Godwin-2] Robert Godwin, H.G. Wells The First Men in the Moon: the Story of the 1919 Film, Apogee Space Books, ISBN 978-1926837-31-4- see web page at Apogee books (retrieved 5 May 2014).

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