When Worlds Collide (1951)

Worlds in collision? There's plenty of talk about that these days. Asteroids slamming into the Earth and destroying all life on the planet? Seen it on the Discovery Channel. But back in 1951? Not so much. Rudolph Mate's When Worlds Collide shoves it in the face of post-war America. Based on the 1933 novel by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, the film posits the question of what we would do in the event that a planet were hurtling through space toward our beloved Earth. Well, in this case, there are actually two planets, the first of which misses the Earth and politely takes up orbit about our sun, providing hapless humanity with a place to escape to. So let's build giant space arks and jump onto the new world before the second planet strikes poor, old, doomed Earth. At least that's what Doctors Hendron (Larry Keating), Frye (Stephen Chase), Bronson (Hayden Rorke) and Ottinger (Sandro Giglio) want to do. But where to get the cash? Enter billionaire Sydney Stanton (John Hoyt), who will put up all the needed money, so long as he gets a seat on the rocket. Well okay, let's get this show on the road.

They buy an old military base and start collecting the best and the brightest minds in the country. And animals. And seeds for planting. And books and movies and music and so on and so forth. Soon the rocket is under construction - oh yeah, it's got fins - as the two rogue planets hurl themselves closer and closer every day. Into this mix lands Dave Randall (Richard Derr) a happy-go-lucky air courier who brought the proof of Earth's imminent destruction to our plucky scientists and stuck around to see what Dr. Hendron's daughter, Joyce (Barbara Rush) was doing later on. What she's doing is marrying her fiance', Dr. Tony Drake (Peter Hanson). The obligatory love triangle ensues. As the two men vie for Joyce's affections, they struggle to get the giant ship ready in time. Of course there is one teensy-weensy problem with the ark. It will only hold 300 people. These will be chosen by lottery from among the hand-picked workers who are building the rocket. As for the rest of the earth? Well, I guess they should have built their own rocket.

Interesting side note here: 300 people aren't enough to create a viable culture - you need 1,000 unrelated individuals to ensure that you don't end up with a totally inbred population in about 200 years. Another interesting side note: there are no minorities among the hand-picked best and brightest - no blacks, no Hispanics, no Asians - just good ol' college educated, white folks. Can you say racism? How about eugenics? But let's not get bogged down in these niggling details. There's work to do. Earth's about to be pulverized! So our pasty white folks gather their animals and their seeds and their WASP culture, load themselves into the space ship and take off at the last possible moment, heading off to the unknown world. Will it be habitable? But of course. It wouldn't dare not be.

You may be thinking by this point that I hate this film. Actually, it's one of my favorite movies. I love the image of the giant space ship being constructed under the ever-growing orb of the approaching planet. And the special effects of the devastation on Earth as the first planet passes by are iconic. The scenes of the flooded New York City were heavily mimicked in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow. Of course, the really crappy special effect of the two planets colliding is a let down. Even back in 1951, they could have done better than this. The film was produced by George Pal, who would also create such SciFi classics as War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Destination Moon, and Doc Savage. Well, maybe the last one wasn't such a classic. But this movie is, in spite of the fact that it is hopelessly rooted in its white male vision of society, a vision in which people of color simply don't exist. That's too bad too, and it's a problem I hope they rectify in the remake currently in production.

When Worlds Collide is rated G, and is filmed in widescreen Technicolor.