President of the World, Raymond Massey |
100 Years In Everytown TIME April 6, 1936
Things to ComeThings to Come is a $1,400,000, two-hour cinematic summary of the history of the next 100 years. It marks the debut of Herbert George Wells as a screen-writer. Since what happens 100 years hence is of no consequence to anyone now old enough to enjoy the cinema, the notion of producing a film of which the longest and most spectacular portions deal with 2036 seems, at first glance, daringly original. Original it is. It is daring only by contrast with Hollywood's timid preference for doing, insofar as possible, only what has been done before. Actually, nothing interests people more than matters which do not concern them. Things to Come is therefore magnificent entertainment.Beginning in 1940, the picture voices Author Wells' current theory that another world war will start that year. The operations of that war and the destruction of Everytown, which looks very much like London, by a fleet of airplanes should throw a highly practical scare into contemporary audiences. Its climax is reached when an unmarried couple more interested in the cosmos than each other disappear from the screen in the direction of the moon.
|
 |
|