The Worst Film Ever

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Copyright 1 November 1951 by Paramount Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Globe (sic): 6 February 1952. U.S. release: November 1951. U.K. release: 15 October 1951 (sic). Australian release: 21 December 1951. Sydney opening as first atraction at Paramount's now long demolished "Prince Edward" (ran three weeks). 82 minutes. SYNOPSIS: As the Earth approaches Doomsday, a space "ark" is hastily constructed to transport a few elite survivors to a neighboring planet.NOTES: Winner of the award for Best Special Effects from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Also nominated for Color Cinematography, but lost out to An American in Paris. Although Paramount expected a repeat of the commerical success enjoyed by Eagle-Lion's Destination Moon, they were disappointed. True, the movie garnered enough domestic revenue to make a modest 50% profit on its million-dollar negative cost, but overseas the picture barely recouped advertising, print and distribution expenses. In Australia, Paramount's top money-spinners for 1951 were (in order): Here Comes the Groom, Samson and Delilah (including road show receipts), A Place in the Sun, The Lemon Drop Kid and My Favorite Spy. COMMENT: Despite its disappointing fade-out on an obvious backdrop, I enjoyed this Pal sci-fi entry which boasts a skillfully plotted and well-characterized screenplay plus a number of ingratiating performances, in addition to its obligatory (and often most effective) special effects. I thought Richard Derr (whose movie career surprisingly never really took off) most attractively personable as the lead, while Larry Keating and John Hoyt seized their opportunities to make the most of the best roles they were ever handed. Also to be thoroughly commended: Paramount's pleasant "Golden Circle" players, Peter Hanson (sic) and Barbara Rush. Character actor Frank Cady has a stand-out cameo too, and I liked the air of quiet authority Stephen Chase so suitably brought to his Dean Frey. Keen-eyed fans will also zero in on Mary Murphy as a prominent student at the plant and Stuart Whitman in a brief innings as a reluctant rebel. Director Rudy Maté keeps the movie simmering at an agreeable pace which makes such admirably short work of its action-packed 82 minutes, most viewers will feel inclined to watch it through again. Interestingly, although the movie repeats the Destination Moon criticism of President Truman's allegedly supine, dilatory and disinterested administration, this element is actually downplayed in When Wortlds Collide by comparison to the many overt and direct frontal attacks in Moon. Needless to say, no mention at all is made of the movie's strong political bias on the Destination Moon DVD jacket. Paramount, however, to my surprise, have really highlighted this same aspect-a minor one in Collide-on their liner notes! What makes this one-sided write-up even more astonishing is that in the film itself writer Sydney Boehm goes to a great deal of trouble to deflect this criticism and get the government off the hook. He even stages a long and almost wholly extraneous scene in the United Nations-a scene which has no equivalent in the Wyler-Balmer novel-for precisely this purpose. AVAILABLE on DVD through Paramount. Quality rating: Ten out of ten.

Before Deep Impact and 2012 there was When Worlds Collide. I was born in the 70's but I love these old sci-fi movies from the 30's to the 60's. So when I came across this movie with a respectable IMDb rating of 6.7 I had high hopes for a nice evening at the movies (the theater being my computer). I was loving every aspect... impending disaster, romance, drama, story, acting, etc. and then the end came. I would have easily given it a 7 but I had to drop a point for that painted landscape and sunrise. Wasn't there any place close to shooting that had vegetation and the sun? Seriously, how much could it have cost? I recommend this movie to any early sci-fi movie fan or to anyone who wants to point to the younger generation and say 'see, it's been done before' - and better, I might add. I guess it annoys me because the rest of the movie was so good but hey, everybody has a bad day!

"When Worlds Collide" was made in 1951, four years before the start of the space race. People born in the last quarter of the 20th century or later may not even be familiar with the term. But, it was very real to those living then when the Soviet Union and United States went all out to be the super power of space. The Soviets were the first to send a satellite into orbit – Sputnik 1, on Oct. 4, 1957. Then, the USSR put the first man in space when Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth on April 12, 1961. The U.S. then triumphed with the first landing on the moon and man to walk on the moon. That was Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969. After the USSR tried lunar landings that failed, it reverted to orbital space efforts. Today, many countries cooperate in joint space ventures, most involving the U.S. and Russia (since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991). What has the space race to do with this film? Nothing, except to show that science, rocketry and images of space travel years before the space age were remarkably advanced and close to what would actually develop. Of course, there hasn't been a large space ship with 44 passengers – yet. And, rocket design didn't need a rail track to jettison space craft. And, the world hasn't faced the threat of annihilation from a space collision. Those are elements that are part of this film. But the science, careful planning, rocket design and other aspects the film shows about space travel are very good. This film is a giant leap from the earliest Hollywood films that showed crude spaceships with visible wires holding them aloft. A 16- year-old grandson recently watched this film with me, and was impressed at how realistic and natural is its portrayal of the science and space travel. Indeed, if one didn't see vehicles of the late 1940s and 1950, one could conclude the film was made in the 1970s or 1980s. Yes, even with the track for a boost, where such larger ships with dozens of passengers may need such a launching pad. This is a high quality film in all aspects. The cast are mostly lesser known actors of the day, but Paramount spared no expense in building sets and shooting the film. For all of the effort it put into making it seem real, the studio blundered with the final scene. When people leave the ship after landing on the new planet, the scene of a sunny green valley is so phony. It's obviously a painted backdrop. One would think they could have shot some panoramas of lush forested areas that didn't have signs of civilization for the final touch of reality. A number of later and more recent survival space films have been made about doomsday for the earth. But none have been any better than "When Worlds Collide."

Though the great space race between America and the U.S.S.R. was still a number of years away, the fact that space travel was a real possibility fuelled audiences desire for sci-fi that was rooted in scientific theory. I emphasise the word theory as the science behind the Golden Age of sci-fi was generally rather loopy, though the films were happy to make heroes of scientists. They were no more self-isolated lunatics cooking up destructive experiments or digging up corpses to make a monster, but wise, goateed intellectuals, or square-jawed protégées capable of saving humanity from any potential threats. Of course, the 1950's mainly gave us rubber-suited aliens or giant, mutated monsters, but there were a few directors and producers that were aiming to give the audience a more satisfying, thoughtful experience, such as Rudolph Mate's When Worlds Collide.After scientists discover that there are a pair of rogue planets hurtling towards Earth, pilot David Randall (Richard Derr) is given the task of delivering the information to New York for further research. When Dr. Cole Hendron (Larry Keating) confirms the fear, the news is brought to the attention of the United Nations, where they are laughed out as crackpots. It is believed that the first planet will pass so close to the Earth, it will cause devastating damage, only return from its orbit of the Sun to destroy Earth completely. With the help of Sydney Stanton (John Hoyt), who provides the funds, Hendron and his colleagues begin work on a spacecraft that will transport a small band of survivors to the second planet, which they believe is habitable and will remain on a stable orbit.Rather than giving us special-effects filled set-pieces or killer aliens, When Worlds Collide entirely focuses on humanity's reaction to potential catastrophe. The story is an obvious parable of Noah's Ark, with God venting his fury upon the Earth he saw as fallen into sin, and this theme comes to fruition near towards the end as a lottery-system is drafted to choose who stays and who goes, with the inevitable violent rebellion of those facing death. This harsh depiction of the human race was the most intriguing idea the film had, which makes it sad that the film-makers failed to capitalise on it, instead focuses on a dull love story between Randall, Hendron's daughter Joyce (Barbara Rush) and Dr. Tony Drake (Peter Hansen).The film was successful and went to be hugely influential in the genre, but it is held back from being anything great by some gaping plot-holes, lazy plot devices, and some erratic special effects. It took home to Academy Awards for Special Effects, but the new world reveal at the climax is a rather hastily painted backdrop, ruining any sense of wonder the ending may have provided. There is plenty of fun to be had with When Worlds Collide and gave many future writers and directors to think about, but producer George Pal funded better and more satisfying sci-fi in The War of the Worlds (1953) and The Time Machine (1960).www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com