Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Written by H. G. Wells Based on The Shape of Things to Come 1933 novel by H. G. Wells
Produced by Alexander Korda
Starring
Raymond Massey
Edward Chapman
Ralph Richardson
Margaretta Scott
Cedric Hardwicke
Maurice Braddell
Derrick De Marney
Ann Todd
Cinematography Georges Périnal
Edited by Charles Crichton
Francis D. Lyon
Music by Arthur Bliss
Production company London Films Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release date 20 February 1936
I guess I never watched this movie before because the title struck me as, well, dull-witted. A movie about the future called Things to Come? Oh, please! Now mind you, I’m the fellow who did a collection of my SF shorts that I titled “Rocketships & Stuff.” But I was being ironic. (Somewhere my editor is screaming, “No, he wasn’t being ironic. He really is that stupid!”).
But now I have watched it, and it turned out to be a very interesting watch.
It starts out unexpectedly dark. Well, HG Wells, right? He accurately forecast an aerial attack on “Everytown” by an unnamed enemy in 1940. Everytown features a large, domed cathedral in the backdrops before the not-Germans finally blow it up in 1960. The war which started in 1940 goes on into the 1970s, when civilization is destroyed and small, starving populations are barely hanging on under brigands and warlords.
The Boss, Rudolph, is overlord of Everytown, and his is an interesting character. Yes, he is a narcissistic brute who swaggers around in a fur coat discarded by some Grand Dame some decades prior. But it’s clear from his portrayal (Ralph Richardson) that he sees himself as an enlightened yet pragmatic man who recognizes that we must carry on without such things as chemists and automobiles, but honestly desires to keep his huddled population safe. He has a near-derelict fleet of biplanes that he’s trying to cobble together into a force of perhaps a dozen planes.
Then one day, a sleek modern plane resembling a Spitfire lands and out steps a futuristically dressed (shoulder fins, incredibly awkward in public restrooms) aviator (Raymond Massey) and makes an offer to The Boss. Become one of our confederation and join the future. There is a world with all kinds of futuristic wonders like radios with pictures and big planes and a cure for all disease! Basra! That happenin’ place in the middle East! The Boss, not surprisingly, wants to keep his people free and sovereign. The aviator mentions use of “the gas of peace” and the Boss locks him up.
Sure enough, a vast fleet of supersized 16-prop flying wings turn up (pretty spiffy design, really) and gas Everytown. This being a version of London that has reverted to coal fires and horses, you would think the locals wouldn’t even notice poison gas, but no, they all fall down. The “Wings Over the World” make Everytown a suburb of Basra, and this is followed by a ten-minute montage of futuristic construction that really should have had Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” (much beloved in the old Looney Tunes toons) as the music. Well, turns out it wasn’t written until a year after the movie was released. Futurists, my ass.
Flash forward to 2036. A child is talking to her great-great granddaddy about the bad old days, and he’s trying to explain to her what a sneeze is, or why people had to die before they were even 100 years old. The kid, who is about 8 or 9 in the movie, has her own story. She goes on in real life to become Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, DBE, FRS, FRCOG (26 April 1927 – 7 July 2007), a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology and led the research into in-vitro fertilization. Well, she came by it honestly.
While it has the usual misfires that always accompany futuristic endeavors, it has moments of startling prescience and instances of sheer brilliance.
Now on Amazon Prime, though it’s probably all over YouTube as well.