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
George Sanders
Debra Paget
Don Dubbins
Patric Knowles
Carl Esmond
Henry Daniell
Melville Cooper
Ludwig Stössel
Morris Ankrum
Les Tremayne
Robert Clarke