1936 - THINGS TO COME, large scale 30's science fiction film

There hasn't been anything like this film.  Socialist writer H.G. Welles was given a lot of say in the making of this science fiction epic by the producer Alexander Korda.  Welles was primarily known for his science fiction stories, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau.  In fact much to his irritation these were the books he was remembered for.  But Welles primary interest was in being a social critic and much of his science fiction ideas contained criticisms of contemporary British society something not always recognized by his readers.  

Producer Alexander Korda was interested in making a film out of an original story written by Welles.  Welles was lured into the film production with an unprecedented amount of control on the production, something that turned out to be to the determent of the film. Korda sparred no expense on Things To Come.  This was a large scale production with a top cast and for it's time state of the art special effects.  The film's story is about the world being lured into a large scale world war.  Only after the devastation of society does a new world order arise that aims to create a utopia for mankind.  

 

The film was directed by William Cameron Menzies who had made his name as a "production designer" on such films as Gone With The Wind.   Menzies was a great visual artist but was apparently fairly deficient when it came to working with actors.  Although Welles wrote the screenplay, it's kind of a lumpy thing.  The actors are not really characters anyone can identify with.  They are essentially mouthpieces for Welles outdated ideas about society and government.  Welles clearly thought the answer to mankind's problems was an embrace of futuristic technology.  Today we can see that this is rather a naive political view. 

 Still this film is really something to see, the sets have a real 30's design to them by people who were trying to imagine what the future would look like.  The visual look is impressive even if the acting isn't so hot.  I suppose you could say the film is a magnificent science fiction folly of a film. but definitely worth watching.

The running time is 108 minutes.