When Worlds Collide **** (1951, Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen) – Classic Movie Review 491

Our planet is under threat of destruction and extinction when another world comes speeding towards it through space. Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen, John Hoyt, Larry Keating and co do the best thing: get the heck out in a spaceship bound for a new planet.

Visionary producer George Pal’s and director Rudolph Maté’s quaintly charming 1951 end-of-the-world epic When Worlds Collide might slightly need your bemused tolerance, since it’s very much of its time. The appealingly wobbly, none-too-convincing special effects (highlighting with the flooding of New York City) won an Oscar for Best Special Effects for Gordon Jennings and Paramount Studios, incredible as that seems now.

You could complain about some stilted dialogue and feeble characterisation in Sidney Boehm’s screenplay, some stiff performances and the movie’s occasional plodding pace. But the strong premise from the novel by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer and the movie’s general air of loving care and amateurish enthusiasm keep it going enjoyably for the many fans of the sci-fi films of the Fifties.

[Spoiler alert] The book’s striking ideas come through with the nightmarish vision of a flooded of New York City with skyscraper tips just above the water and, its opposite, the optimistic dream climax of the space pilgrims landing with hope in their hearts on their new world.

Visually, too, it is still very appealing. John F Seitz and W Howard Greene’s interestingly faded Technicolor cinematography is quite beautiful and was Oscar nominated. And Hal Pereira and Albert Nozaki’s production designs are extremely striking too. And, all in all, it is still a little sci-fi gem of its era.

Stuart Whitman appears as an extra in his second movie.

In 2015, a remake is in development by writer-director Stephen Sommers.

Peter Hansen, who was known for Branded (1950), Dragonfly (2002) and The War of the Roses (1989) and played Lee Baldwin on the ABC TV soap opera General Hospital, died on 9 April 2017, aged 95.

Barbara Rush (born January 4, 1927) won the Golden Globe Award as most promising female newcomer for the 1953 sci-fi film It Came from Outer Space. She also starred The Young Philadelphians, The Young Lions, Robin and the 7 Hoods, and Hombre.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 491

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