Now for some high adventures on the seas of cheese!
I finally got around to one of the great classic science fiction films that I hadn’t seen. H G Well’s The First Men in the Moon. Right off, I could sense the enjoyability in this film. Overwhelming dramatic music and beautiful titles set us off on this classic adventure… One that mankind had dreamed of ever since they realized that the moon was a solid thing out there and not, well, whatever it was they had thought it was prior. It’s based on the H G Wells story but, alas, I have not read that so I can not attest to it’s loyalty to the tale. But it is a great little film and, as is common with these stories, mixing the modern with the classical. Or the modern with the future, as they were originally envisioned. I always find it odd about these sort of stories. Written in the 19th century to take place in the current time and in a far off time. Then they are made into movies where the old far off time is now the current time, and the original current time is now the far away time. Anyway, I think it is kind of interesting.
When I think of “men to the moon” launch stories, I cannot help but compare them with Rocketship X-M, which was possibly the first “modern” film of this kind. First Men in the Moon is certainly much more interesting and entertaining than X-M was and the equipment and effects are much better too. Of course, it is 14 years more recent (1964 to 1950) and was made after the point when people had ventured to space, but still. I liked the look of it and the well done moon approach scenes after the titles do it justice.
just like real life As one would guess, it is the story of the first mission to the moon! The trip goes just as planned, big U.N. fanfare and scenes of excited journalists from around the world (all with the mandatory nation-identification signs in front of them). Only, once the astronauts get to the moon, they locate a Union Jack and a 65 year old letter from England. At this point, the space agency decides to head to England to track down the person named on the letter to determine its validity. They end up coming upon an old man who claims to have gone to the moon in 1899 and seemingly has long been involved in a letter writing campaign to stop people from going to the moon, due to what he discovered there. At this point the movie than descends into a flashback mode where we return to Victorian England and the tale of how this broke and unsuccessful playwright and his girl get involved with a crazy inventor with anti-gravity paint and head for the moon. It becomes one of those droll British Victorian adventure story movies, in the vein of
Journey to the Center of the Earth. I was a bit disappointed for the entertaining modern moon romp to end, but once they got past the dull carryings on in the British countryside and got themselves moon bound… Even the olde tyme stuff picked up.
who knows what we’ll find… Of course, it’s not long before they encounter civilization up there. No, not the statuesque blonde’s, brunettes and redheads you have learned to expect to find on the moon, but short people in costumes with funny bugheads on. They dwell in underground caverns and, strangely for creatures who live on the moon, seem to require oxygen to breath… Which is very helpful for our intrepid crew, as they also need it to live. The Brits are captured by these Selenites and studied…
or what may find us Would you escape to Earth or stay to study? Of course, it then gets a chance to make some commentaries on human culture, its violence and paranoia. So it’s actually quite good. Of course, it should be… not only is it a Ray Harryhausen film, but it is also filmed in Dynavision, the miracle of the screen!And then an odd film that I find strangely appealing.
The Secret Lives of Dentists. The story of… Well, two dentists. The husband (played by Campbell Scott) thinks he might have witnessed his wife kissing another man and he begins to suspect that she is leading a, ahem, secret life. He becomes fixated on this as she is gone longer and longer each day and he is left to care for the children until she returns… always late, always in a rather perky mood. He also has to deal with a patient named Slater, an irritating and self-involved man who cannot stand dentists and who goes as far as publicly chastising “our hero” for his lack of dentistry skills.Scott begins to descend deeper and deeper into his fears and begins having fantasies: flashing back on moments with his wife, imagining her not having an affair, imagining her having affairs (with just about all the other men in their lives, it seems). He is joined on this journey by his anti-conscience, a foul mouthed harsh adviser who is represented by that unruly patient again, Slater. Of course, it is this relationship of him to his inner Slater that is the focus of the film, and the highlight. Slater is well played by Denis Leary which makes for a very entertaining film. Their interactions, both alone and in the company of others, are quite engaging. One thing that makes this a worthwhile film is that the story of a man who has a foul-mouthed comedian as his make-believe friend is right for the dreaded silliness, but Scott plays this really straight and it works out quite well.
