Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane invents a new source of power called Power X. He plans to use it to power rockets, and to show its potential he plans to send a projectile to the moon. Joining him for the trip are his assistant Ben Sharpe, Barbicane's arch-rival Stuyvesant Nicholl, and Nicholl's daughter Virginia. Nicholl believes that Power X goes against the will of God and sabotages the projectile so that they cannot return to earth, setting up a suspenseful finale as they battle to repair the projectile.
Joseph Cotten
as Victor Barbicane
George Sanders
as Stuyvesant Nicholl
Debra Paget
as Virginia Nicholl
Don Dubbins
as Ben Sharpe
Patric Knowles
as Josef Cartier
Carl Esmond
as Jules Verne
Henry Daniell
as Morgana
Melville Cooper
as Bancroft
Ludwig Stössel
as Aldo Von Metz
Morris Ankrum
as President Ulysses S. Grant
Les Tremayne
as Countdown Announcer
Robert Clarke
as Narrator (voice)
