World Without End (1956): Cheap, but very cheerful.
I must admit, but after the first five minutes of this offering from Allied Artists I was almost ready to turn it off. It didn’t start too well, not for me anyhow, I was a bit sad to see Rod Taylor and Hugh Marlow knocking about some awful dialogue with another couple of actors, unknown to me until now, whilst about to return from a seemingly successful mission to Mars, at least successful to them, as Earth had given them up for lost. But, as Rod Taylor offered his crew coffee, things started to look up, slowly at first, but it got so I couldn’t stop watching, enthralled as I was. With the afore mentioned offer for caffeine, the ship goes nuts in some sort of cosmic quantum bit of fuckery, and they crash land on some snowy planet that wasn’t Hoth! After a seemingly short walk, the lost crew of four arrive in a sunny rocky/foresty location, handy! One of the guys finds an abandoned cave, or is it? Nope, ’cause within minutes they’re attacked by giant mutant under-articulated spiders, that are fought off with army issue six-shooters that fire eight rounds! So it looks like they’ll have to sleep outside tonight then!
But the spiders don’t seem to be the only life on this world, the planet also seems to be inhabited by hairy, one eyed cavemen type mutants, who (as we later learn), if not born with hideous deformities are outcast or enslaved by these scary lookin’ freaks. The non-uglies are of mild temperament, and the mutants are savage beasts, all ruled by one alpha-freak. And after fighting off a small band of mutants and killing one (who they bury, showing their deeply civilized nature) the guys set off , only to make a shocking discovery, they’re on no alien planet, this is Earth, and the year is 2508AD, shiiiiit!!! And the crewman who left behind a family has a moment to reflect his loss, while the others look on in sympathy. Man, so far this film has it all.
But the sentiments are short lived, those pesky Mutants are on the prowl again, and one lunges itself on stalwart Capt. John Borden (the ever so dependable Hugh Marlow) and a good ol’ fist fight ensues between the two, with an unintentionally hilarious move from Borden when he pulls on the mutants one eye. The freaks are once again driven off with gun fire and the crew flee to the caves once more. This cave though is different as Pvt. Herbert Ellis (a young Rod Taylor) finds a metal door in the cave wall. As they wonder at the hardness of this seemingly new metal, the entrance is blocked behind them, but as we all know, as one door closes another one opens, and this one into some cool ‘Krell’ like tunnel, of which they enter with mild trepidation. They arrive in what looks like some hotel lobby, even Rod Taylor comments on the absence of the receptionist, so it’s not just me!
After finding spy cameras (foolishly placed behind a plant) a voice announces the presence of the subterranean dwellers, the race of humans, unaffected by the radiation that has mutated there land dwelling counterparts, that live like the week fools that they are in a beautiful underground city. Our heroes are put in front of the governing council, where they are invited to stay, but their weapons must be confiscated, as quite understandably, weapons are outlawed. The men integrate as best they can, but soon see the folly of the peoples sub-level occupancy. The future men have become increasingly impotent over the generations, and it is now clear the race are on there last legs. The few children there are are week, pasty and infirmed. Despite a campaign from our quatro to seize the surface from the inferior mutants, the council want no change to the comfort and security they enjoy down there, and refute any such ideas of revolution. Hugh Marlow gets close to one of the women, and she then falls in love with Hugh, much to the disapproval of her ‘natural yet impotent’ suitor Mories (a perfectly cast Booth Coleman), whose jealousy leads to plotting, murder and ultimately the framing of our heroes. But, thankfully the plot is scuppered when the mens room-maid (Lisa Montell), who witnesses Mories deception, and despite jealousy issues of her own, see to it our men are denounced as murderers. So, with the newly found trust bestowed on our friends the sub level dwellers agree to give the surface of earth a go. With the help of the cities engineering folk, they fashion a bazooka, and take on the mutants. The captain (Hugh Marlow) though must take on the Alpha-Mutant if they are ever to get any joy from the uglies and the subordinate non ugly mutants. And in a crescendo of explosions, fisty-cuffs and doe eyed dames the surface is liberated for all to live together in peace, Amen!
The story moves along at such a comfortable pace, with a really lean narrative that it was not difficult to really enjoy this little gem. Yeah the dialogue is stiff and some of the acting awkward, but these minor quibbles get lost in what turns out to be a rather enthralling movie. Rod Taylor (The Time Machine 1960) doesn’t come off well at the start, battling with the dialogue and his Australian accent can be attributed some of the blame I guess. Hugh Marlow however is as reliable as he is in any other movie I’ve seen him in, them being The Day the Earth Stood Still (my all time fave) and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (made just prior to this film). He’s one of those guys that can can carry a character effortlessly, give him a script, good or bad, and you can guarantee he’ll do the very best with it, and this film just proves that, he’s great. As for the other two crew members, Dr Eldon Galbraithe (Nelson Leigh) and Hank Jaffe (Christopher Dark), well never heard of ‘em before, but it seems they were both very busy in TV and film. Booth Coleman was great in this, playing a man destroyed by jealousy, he seethed and scowled with such efficiency it seems he was born for the role. Booth has such a body of great work to his name it’s difficult to pick anything in particular, well that’s not true actually, because he was in my second favourite TV show ever, Planet of the Apes as Dr. Zaus. And his other TV work is vast, let alone the number of films he did. Everett Glass, the leader of the council also does well with what was on offer, playing it fairly camp, and with those costumes he had to! As did the female cast, lead by Nancy Gates.
And on that note, the costumes are of particular note, as are the set designs, by legendary Illustrator/designer of Esquire magazine and Ziegfeld Follies fame Alberto Vargas. Vargas was one of Americas most famous Illustrsators, famous especially for the illustrations of the ever so saucy girls from the 30’s and 40’s that adorned US bomber planes and picture cards carried by US troops in the second world war and incredible portraits of hollywood actresses.
Vargas' World Without End poster. Mmmmm!
Direction by Edward Bernds is solid and assured, and with a script like this it takes a certain talent to come up with a picture of this quality and coherence. Scoring is by Leith Stevens, who’s credits include some of the best Sci-fi genre scores ever, including War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, Destination Moon, Earth Vs The Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth, to name only afew. This is another reliable and solid score, whilst not being over powering it helps the story along beautifully.
All Said this is a good film, worth repeat viewings, and one I’m certainly glad to have in my collection.