London Films 1936

Directed by William Cameron Menzies & Ernest B. Schoedsack

Screenplay by H. G. Wells & Alexander Korda

Based on the H. G. Wells novel The Shape of Things to Come

Special Effects by Ned Mann

Staring Raymond Massey & Ralph Richardson & Sophie Stewart

Well while Hollywood was busy producing its hybrid brand of Sci-Fi film, England stepped forward with a spectacular example of the genre, Alexander Korda's London Films production of Things to Come was the most ambitious Sci-Fi film since Metropolis and the first great sound film in the field. After years of disappointments, H. G. Wells at last got his chance--in 1934, Korda invited him to do a screen version of his future book, The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and two years later, after many problems and numerous drafts it reached the screen. By this time, Well's literary reputation was so great that many people associated with the project felt a bit awed by his presence. He dominated the production to such a degree that he sent out memos regarding even such things as costume and furniture design. He was involved in every stage of the filmmaking. One of the characters was John Cabal, played by Ramond Massey with just the right touch of grim humour and smug self-sufficiency. Cabal and his wife (Sophie Stewart) are citizens of Everytown in 1940. Together with a friend, Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman), they are celebrating Christmas Eve, when the announcement of World War II is heard over the radio. Passworthy, who believed war would never come, is shocked, but the more far seeing Cabal is not surprised. Shortly after , an air raid is sounded and the town is bombed by massed aircraft that drone ominously overhead, but are never seen. Everytown is destroyed, and the film becomes a lengthy montage of fighting and devastation, as the war stretches on and on, driving the world back to barbarism.

Cabal survives and is seen again for a brief moment as an aviator who shoots down an (Obviously German) fighter pilot (John Clements), then tries to save his life. But this is no longer World War I, and there is no longer any room for "glory and gallantry" --the technological horrors of war win out, and the pilot dies of his own poison gas, after giving his mask to a nearby child. The war drags on, futuristic tanks creep over a blasted landscape; a dead soldier, crucified on barbed wire, dissolves into wisps of cloth. Finally in 1966 general hostilities grind to a halt from lack of resources, and a terrible new plague, the, "wandering sickness," terrorises the survivors. The only way to deal with the plague-carrying zombies that result from the disease is to shoot them, a drastic but effective solution instigated by a man (Ralph Richardson) who rapidly rises to power as the Boss of the ruined Everytown. By 1970 the plague has been conquered, the city has begun to rebuild, and the Boss is in full control. Richardson is a blustering, swaggering warlord, determined to carry on hostilities in his own petty domain as long as anyone is left to oppose him. Dressed in a tin helmet with black plumes and moth-eaten furs over a military uniform, the Boss, with his "flags and his follies," is a superb symbol of Well's pet hates--militarism, politics, and capitalism. The Boss's mistress, Roxana (Margaretta Scott), is barbarically attired with necklaces and coins.


Into this warlike atmosphere comes John Cabal in a sleek, futuristic plane--a striking contrast to the pathetic old crates the Boss has been attempting to activate for his war against the Hill Basra who have banded together to preserve and rebuild civilisation. The Boss, seeing Cabal as a threat, but not wanting to admit it, tries to force him to fix up the tattered "air force." "I want those planes!" he bellows unreasonably. When Cabal refuses, he is imprisoned until the Boss's chief engineer, Richard Gordon (Derrick de Marney), craftily asks for Cabal's help in repairing the planes. Gordon hates the Boss, and wants to escape, and with Cabal's assistance he gets one of the ancient biplanes up and flies to Basra. The Boss has talked himself into believing that Cabal is not really a serious threat to his power, merely some sort of "aerial bus driver"; he is totally unprepared for the massive air strike by the gigantic futuristic bombers of the Airmen, as they come roaring out of the clouds, dropping "peace gas" bombs. The Boss's soldiers are only immobilised, but the Boss himself dies--probably of frustration. He is a dinosaur whose time is past. Cabal leads the Airmen forward to "a new life for mankind": from here we see a shiny and clean new city built where there is no war, this is what Well's hopes and dreams for the future, the use of science and technology for the happiness and advancement of mankind.

The story resumes in the rebuilt Everytown of 2036: a trip to the Moon is planned by Oswald Cabal (also played by Massey), grandson of John Cabal and the overseer of the community, but there is a snake in Eden: Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke), a master sculptor, opposes scientific progress. He attempts to lead a mob against the firing of the Space Gun, but to no avail-- the first space capsule is fired to the Moon, and reason prevails over emotion. Mankind has taken a giant step toward the stars. As for a look into the future Things to Come is not remarkable, except for its war prediction, but even then the real thing mercifully lasted for a much shorter duration than predicted. Like many people of his day, Wells feared that a new war would bring the end of western civilisation and the onset of the Dark Age. he tried through this movie to warn mankind, and point the way to peace and prosperity as he envisioned it--but few listened. Audiences responded to the visual extravagance of Things to Come, but didn't seem to get the message. Korda spent 350,000 pounds to make the film, probably the most ambitious project ever undertaken by a British film unit, but it was a financial failure only in retrospect can we see it as a flawed but brilliant milestone in the history of the Sci-Fi film. After years of people bungling his stories up in bad movies and plays, finally, for better or worse, H. G. Wells had his say on the big screen