Drive In Sci-Fi: First Men In The Moon (1964)

The actual first men in the moon we had was in 1969 during apollo 11 mission. Russians did send a robot in 1959 though. Thism ovie is set in 1964, so the real deal hasn't happened yet and it was up for speculation. The book this is based was written by H. G. Wellis in 1901, by which time there was no space program yet so it was all fantasy. now that we got that clear....

A team of international astronaus land on the moon for the first time. H. G. Wellis often used the "worlds state" and he even advertised it, he wanted whole world to unite into one body and forget about silly nationalism. i agree with many of his views on that. people all over the world celebrate this landing on the moon,however this is quickly diminished by the fact that the astronauts (whose costumes look pretty good though, looks like they did their homework) find an old English flag. they also find a document claiming that the moon is claimed for Queen Victoria by 1899. The document is claimed by Katherine Gardner or something. They go to England to look for the old records and find out if she even existed. They find the man and he confirms the finding. He also starts telling the story of how he landed on the moon.
A couple is having money trouble so they sell their cottage to the mad inventor. He invents a metal that can defy gravity. They Make a pact to sell cottage for experiments. The experiments are actually going to the moon. He even has the capsule, that he calls sphere, made up around the place and stuff. During that time one of experiments go bad and his furnace explodes, but they were safe since they were looking at capsule. They make new one and but the stupid girl keeps ruining their experiment. Accidentally the woman also gets in the ship as they take off so shes stuck with them. she also manages to ruin the trip again by aiming for the sun instead of moon. -.- They manage to land on the moon and live in that thing of theirs. They go exploring with the two suits that they have while the girl is left behind in a capsule. they are overly happy about it, and its fitting, they are the first people on moon after all. They put out the flag and claim for the moon in there, what are the chances the net expedition lands in exactly same spot? And they find aliens that have jut opened some underground hangar base up. However it seems that magically they can breathe without the helmet too. theres air in the tunnels. They go deeper looking for a lost helmet to be able to get outside. They do find it but they also find moon creature, that is small. many of them. The creatures are showing unhealthy interest and looks to force them to go somewhere. deeper into the mountain. Humans attack them in surprise but they get swarmed by the amount of creatures. they look like overgrown bees. The scientist makes a comment how this will show how friendly humans are to the aliens. When they get back they realize that the Sphere is gone. The aliens have dragged it away. This reminds me a lot of Time Machine really. A machine they use to get there gets hidden by locals. And it was written by same guy just 6 years ago, so he borrows from himself. They manage to get inside because the doors seems to be unlocked.
Meanwhile the aliens figure out a way to open the capsule but the girl shoots at them. They also meet a giant worm that attacks them. The Bee people kill the giant worm and kidnap the scientist. They also explore how the woman speeches. They manage to communicate with the aliens as aliens learn to speak english. the process os made much more smarter than what we see in most movies so at least a bonus there. the scientists and a girl is being shown the wonders of bee people world while the young man is struggling thinking they are savages. They seem peaceful enough but their methods are bad. they put thier own to sleep whne not used. very strict autocratic society it seems. well they are bees after all. They find out that their world is ruled by sunlight and they sleep during solar eclipses. The boy decides to break them out of there as if they were prisoners anyway. The scientist gets to meep what seems to be their mastermind in a form of a ball. The ball its just a shield for the main guy. The young couple fixes the sphere while the scientist is busy doing away with his knowledge about all things human. They go guns blazing, escape the place but the scientist actually stays behind. As the story ends we see modern astronauts notice that all the aliens are wiped out by a plague brought by first men. its what happened to almsot all south american cities when Spaniards came. they brought plagues that killed most of the population, because they had no immunity like Europeans did.

Story: 9/10. very good. but its Wells so thats to be expected.
Acting: 8/10. pretty good in this department as well. looks like they really worked on this one.
Sound: 5/10. a bit better than the usual. not as annoying.
Sci factor: 7/10. pretty good as well. not perfect, but many funny tributes to interesting science.
Lasting Appeal: 8/10. This one is a keeper.
Overall rating: 8/10.