When Worlds Collide (1951)

The Worst Film Ever

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of the least known sci-fi movies from the 1950s, but it's one of the best of the era. The great thing about this movie is that it concerns the lives of the characters and their personal problems.The plot is about a group of researchers that after a trip in Africa discover some shocking news, that the star Bellus will collide to Earth, destroying the planet. Soon they begin to build a giant rocket ship that will take a group of survivors in Zyra, a safer planet.The best part of the movie (for me) was the part of all the cataclysms (mountains crumbling, giant sea waves, the Brooklyn Bridge auto-destroying in pieces), and the music fits with the viewer's emotions. I also liked the chemistry between the two main characters (Richard Derr and Barbara Rush), especially in the night-club scene. And the ending is very superb for a 1951 sci-fi movie!This is a sci-fi movie that every sci-fi fan must see almost once in their life.

"When Worlds Collide" was made in 1951, four years before the start of the space race. People born in the last quarter of the 20th century or later may not even be familiar with the term. But, it was very real to those living then when the Soviet Union and United States went all out to be the super power of space. The Soviets were the first to send a satellite into orbit – Sputnik 1, on Oct. 4, 1957. Then, the USSR put the first man in space when Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth on April 12, 1961. The U.S. then triumphed with the first landing on the moon and man to walk on the moon. That was Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969. After the USSR tried lunar landings that failed, it reverted to orbital space efforts. Today, many countries cooperate in joint space ventures, most involving the U.S. and Russia (since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991). What has the space race to do with this film? Nothing, except to show that science, rocketry and images of space travel years before the space age were remarkably advanced and close to what would actually develop. Of course, there hasn't been a large space ship with 44 passengers – yet. And, rocket design didn't need a rail track to jettison space craft. And, the world hasn't faced the threat of annihilation from a space collision. Those are elements that are part of this film. But the science, careful planning, rocket design and other aspects the film shows about space travel are very good. This film is a giant leap from the earliest Hollywood films that showed crude spaceships with visible wires holding them aloft. A 16- year-old grandson recently watched this film with me, and was impressed at how realistic and natural is its portrayal of the science and space travel. Indeed, if one didn't see vehicles of the late 1940s and 1950, one could conclude the film was made in the 1970s or 1980s. Yes, even with the track for a boost, where such larger ships with dozens of passengers may need such a launching pad. This is a high quality film in all aspects. The cast are mostly lesser known actors of the day, but Paramount spared no expense in building sets and shooting the film. For all of the effort it put into making it seem real, the studio blundered with the final scene. When people leave the ship after landing on the new planet, the scene of a sunny green valley is so phony. It's obviously a painted backdrop. One would think they could have shot some panoramas of lush forested areas that didn't have signs of civilization for the final touch of reality. A number of later and more recent survival space films have been made about doomsday for the earth. But none have been any better than "When Worlds Collide."

Rudolph Mate directed this George Pal production about a rogue star named Bellus that is on an unalterable collision course with the Earth, dooming it to annihilation. In the meantime, some wealthy men, among them a wheelchair bound industrialist played by John Hoyt, finance a private expedition to build spaceships to carry a select group of people(who have various essential skills necessary in a new civilization) to a newly discovered planet called Zyra, where humanity can start over. Will this plan work in time, or is the human race doomed to extinction? Given it's highly dramatic premise, film is strangely bland and ineffectual, though does have some good model work on display. Pity the sequel "After Worlds Collide" wasn't filmed though.

The box from the film features 2 rave reviews about this talk-talk mess. One is from the Apollo Movie Guide. (?) The other from a respected sci-fi publication.Granted, it was filmed at a time when 3 for a nickel sci-fi flicks were being mass produced, but many of them were still fun and somewhat exciting to watch.This one was cheesier than a Kraft outlet, a world populated by so-so actors, with the exception of Richard Derr, who I found interesting to watch. I would have thought he would be a bigger name.The pseudo-intellectual conversations sounded like a pie-eyed politician trying to impress his constituents with his knowledge.Technically, the film was nowhere. The flood scenes? They looked like somebody filled a tub and put in some miniature buildings. The water was stirred with a big spoon.I sat through it but, after I send off this review, it will be tossed in the trash can.I won't have to worry about who lives or dies. The movie was dead after the titles came on.Yuck!!