Director: William Cameron Menzies
Screenplay: H.G. Wells
Based on a novel by: H.G. Wells
Starring: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott
Producer: Alexander Korda
Country: UK
Running Time: 92 min
Year: 1936
BBFC Certificate: PG
(3/5)
Tying in nicely with my recent review of Island of Lost Souls comes another early H.G. Wells film adaptation, Things to Come. What makes this later film especially interesting though is that Wells himself adapted his novel The Shape of Things to Come for the screen, making it his first screenplay credit (his only other being The Man Who Could Work Miracles later the same year). Unfortunately, like Island of Lost Souls before it, this sci-fi classic suffered a troubled production. Wells seemingly got more control over the filmmaking process than any other screenwriter at the time – his fame meant that his name was plastered all over the film’s marketing material and he supposedly supervised much of the film’s production. Unfortunately, the studios didn’t seem to respect his work and the reported original 130 minute rough-cut was first cut down to just under two hours for the BBFC, then released at 108 mins, later cut to 98 mins and again down to 96 minutes for the US version. Over the years, even the slightly longer cuts got lost along the way and a 92 minute version was the best you could get on DVD until Network came along and released this newly restored version, bringing together all surviving elements to make a polished 96 minute cut as well as an option to ‘virtually’ watch the film as originally intended (see the bottom of the page). It’s a shame the full original version no longer survives, but fans of the film should be glad to hear that everything has been done to get this new Blu-Ray release as comprehensive as possible.
Things to Come charts 100 years of history in Everytown (it’s not the most subtle of films – I’ll get to that later). Opening at Christmas 1940, the townspeople try their best to enjoy the festive period while the threat of war looms. When it does break out (that very night), all hell breaks loose and the town is left in ruin. The war rages on for thirty years and the entire country (possibly the world) is decimated and pestilence eats through its remaining inhabitants in the form of the ‘wandering sickness’ (which basically turns people into zombies). We move forward to 1970 and although the war looks to have ended, lands have turned to mob rule and ‘the Boss’ (Ralph Richardson) is in charge of what’s left of Everytown. He’s an aggressive sort who wants to fight for supremacy over local tribes and the other inhabitants begrudgingly follow. The arrival of a strangely well dressed and groomed former townsman Cabal (Raymond Massey) in a high-tech flying machine turns things around though. Coming from a seemingly infallible group of peaceful people who call themselves the ‘Wings Over the World’, Cabal manages to convince a couple of the locals to turn against their ruler and eventually he is overthrown. Moving further on to 2036, Everytown has become a sort of utopia, pushing scientific discovery to it’s limits, peaking with a giant gun which can fire a rocket into the depths of space. Unfortunately, not all of the future residents believe this is something man should be working towards.
