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(More customer reviews)Based upon the 1933 novel by Edwin Balmer (1883-1959) and Philip Wylie (1902-1971), "When Worlds Collide" was adapted to film in 1951 under the direction of Rudolph Maté (1898-1964) and with a budget of approximately $936,000. (By comparison in the same year, this was only slightly less than the budget used for "The Day the Earth Stood Still", but a small fraction of the $7,000,000 budget spent for "Quo Vadis"). The story begins at a remote observatory where the eminent astronomer, Dr. Emery Bronson (Hayden Rorke, 1910-1987) discovers that a rogue star with its orbiting planet (that he names Bellus and Zyra respectively) may be on a collision course with Earth. In absolute secrecy, Dr. Bronson sends his horrific data to his colleague Dr. Cole Hendron (Larry Keating, 1896-1963) in New York via the leather-jacketed, ace pilot & courier Dave Randall (Richard Derr, 1918-1992). With the assistance of his daughter Joyce Hendron (Barbara Rush), Dr. Hendron analyzes Dr. Bronson's data on the "Differential Analyzer" (an old-fashioned analog computer) and confirms the trajectories of Bellus and Zyra. Dr. Hendron confers with other scientists and world leaders to ask them to build rockets to ferry as many people, animals and plants as possible away from the doomed Earth and to a new home on Zyra. (The similarity to the Judeo-Christian myth of Noah's ark is obvious.) However, the findings fall on deaf ears, except for the aging, wheelchair-bound millionaire Sydney Stanton (John Hoyt, 1905-1991), who agrees to fund the building of a single rocket that can take just over 40 passengers as long as he has a seat. The film follows the construction of the rocket, the devastating effects that the gravity of Zyra and Bellus have upon Earth as they approach, and the impact that the impending doom has upon the social structure.
For a film that was made long before computer-generated special effects existed, the special effects used in "When Worlds Collide" are effective and entertaining. It's especially fun to see how people in the early 1950's envisioned the types of technology that could be used to travel into space years before any nation had created an actual space program or trained any astronauts. Though the science used in the film was flawed and film's meager budget prevented a more realistic vision of a Zyran landscape, neither seriously adversely affects the film-watching experience. Overall, I rate the 1951 "When Worlds Collide" with 4 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to any sci-fi aficionado.
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Earth is threatened by a collision with a runaway star. Private industry builds a space ship to take colonists to a new planet to start a new civilization.Genre: Science FictionRating: GRelease Date: 28-MAR-2006Media Type: DVD
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