World Without End
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| World Without End | |
|---|---|
| Image:Worldwithoutend.jpg World Without End movie poster |
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| Directed by | Edward Bernds |
| Produced by | Richard G. Heermance |
| Written by | Edwards Bernds |
| Starring | Hugh Marlowe Nancy Gates |
| Music by | Leith Stevens |
| Cinematography | Ellsworth Fredericks |
| Editing by | Eda Warren |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  July 30, 1956 March 25, 1956 |
| Running time | 80 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
World Without End is the title of a relatively ambitious science fiction B-movie, released in 1956 by Allied Artists. The first science fiction thriller in Cinemascope, it starred Hugh Marlowe, Rod Taylor, Nancy Gates, Christopher Dark, and Nelson Leigh and was directed by Edward Bernds. It chronicles the exploits of four earth-bound astronauts whose 1957 spaceship accidentally exceeds the speed of light and sends them hurtling ahead in time to the 26th century. Surviving the subsequent crash landing, they soon discover that humanity has been largely destroyed by an atomic war (circa 2188).
They also learn that two competing remnants of human society still co-exist: the "surface dwellers", who live in a primitive hunter-gatherer system, with a group of one-eyed violent mutants, deformed by generations of exposure to residual radioactivity, dominating the majority of 'normal' human tribesmen, and the "underground" high-tech descendants of those who were lucky enough to relocate permanently beneath the surface when the A-bombs started falling. These survivors are an inherently peaceful, reasonable group, but apparently the men have grown increasingly feeble and nearly sterile from their many generations out of the sun. The women, on the other hand, appear to be vital and ready for romance.
In keeping with 1950s American values, the spacemen heroes - embodied by Hugh Marlowe - appear to fit the bill and also help to re-introduce sophisticated weaponry back into the world. After a battle with the beast-men above, in which the subterranean dwellers repeatedly fire a Korean War-era bazooka at their enemies, civilization regains the surface. The film's hopeful tag line reads "The Beginning".
[edit] Trivia
This film marked an early 'big-screen' performance of a buff and often shirtless Rod Taylor. The Australian-born actor would soon make his own indelible mark in science fiction film history, portraying another time traveler in the George Pal production of The Time Machine (1960 film). Ironically, in that work the peaceful and apathetic Eloi live above ground, provided for -- and preyed upon -- by the monstrous, subterranean Morlocks.
