Things to Come


Things to Come is a 1936 British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda, directed by William Cameron Menzies, and written by H. G. Wells. It is a loose adaptation of Wells' book The Shape of Things to Come. The film stars Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott, Cedric Hardwicke, Maurice Braddell, Sophie Stewart, Derrick De Marney, and Ann Todd. Things to Come became a landmark in production design.

Plot

In 1940, businessman John Cabal, living in the city of Everytown in Southern England, cannot enjoy Christmas Day as the news speaks of possible war. His guest, Harding, shares his worries, while another friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy, believes that it will not come to pass, and if it does, it will accelerate technological progress. An aerial bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilisation and then global war with the unnamed enemy. Cabal becomes a Royal Air Force pilot and serves bravely, even attempting to rescue an enemy pilot he has shot down.
The war continues into the 1960s, long enough for the people of the world to have forgotten why they are fighting. Humanity enters a new dark age. Every city in the world is in ruins, the economy has been devastated by hyperinflation, and there is little technology left other than greatly depleted air forces. A pestilence known as "wandering sickness" is inflicted by aerial bombing and causes its victims to walk around aimlessly in a zombie-like state before dying. The plague kills half of humanity and extinguishes the last vestiges of government.
By 1970, the warlord Rudolf, known as the "Boss", has become the chieftain of what is left of Everytown and eradicated the pestilence by shooting the infected. He has started yet another war, this time against the "hill people" of the Floss Valley to obtain coal and shale to render into oil for his ragtag collection of prewar biplanes.
On May Day that year, a sleek new monoplane lands in Everytown, startling the residents, who have not seen a new aircraft in many years. The pilot, a now elderly John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of engineers and mechanics have formed an organisation called "Wings Over the World". They are based in Basra, Iraq, and have outlawed war and are rebuilding civilisation throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean. Cabal offers the Boss the opportunity to join Wings, but he immediately rejects the offer and takes Cabal prisoner, forcing him to repair the obsolete biplanes.
With the assistance of Cabal, the Boss's disillusioned mechanic Gordon contacts Wings Over the World. Gigantic flying wing aircraft arrive over Everytown and saturate its population with a "Gas of Peace" that temporarily renders them unconscious. The people awaken to find themselves under the control of Wings Over the World and the Boss dead from a fatal allergic reaction to the gas. Cabal promises them that Wings Over the World will usher in a new age of progress and peace.
Under Cabal's guidance, Wings Over the World quickly rebuilds civilisation to even greater heights. By 2036, a stable mankind is now living in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown, and civilisation is at last devoted to peace and scientific progress. All is not well, however. The sculptor Theotocopulos incites the populace to demand a "rest" from all the rush of progress, symbolised by the coming first crewed flight around the Moon. When the mob threatens to destroy the space gun that will launch the ship to the Moon, Oswald Cabal, the grandson of John Cabal and current head of government, is forced to move the launch ahead of schedule.
Oswald Cabal's daughter Catherine and fellow scientist Maurice Passworthy are the passengers. After the projectile is launched and just a tiny light in the night sky, Cabal debates the desirability of human progress with Passworthy's anxious father. To Passworthy's concern that humanity shall never be able to rest, Cabal retorts that humans have no choice but to conquer the universe and its mysteries: "All the universe or nothingness...Which shall it be?"

Cast

Main cast

  • Raymond Massey as John Cabal / Oswald Cabal
  • Edward Chapman as Pippa Passworthy and Raymond Passworthy
  • Ralph Richardson as Rudolf, "The Boss"
  • Margaretta Scott as Roxana Black / Rowena Cabal
  • Cedric Hardwicke as Theotocopulos
  • Maurice Braddell as Dr. Edward Harding
  • Sophie Stewart as Mrs Cabal
  • Derrick De Marney as Richard Gordon
  • Ann Todd as Mary Gordon
  • Pearl Argyle as Catherine Cabal
  • Kenneth Villiers as Maurice Passworthy
  • Ivan Brandt as Morden Mitani
  • Anne McLaren as The Child
  • Patricia Hilliard as Janet Gordon
  • Charles Carson as Great Grandfather

    Uncredited

  • Patrick Barr as World Transport official
  • John Clements as enemy pilot
  • Anthony Holles as Simon Burton
  • Allan Jeayes as Mr. Cabal
  • Pickles Livingston as Horrie Passworthy
  • Abraham Sofaer as Wadsky

    Production

H.G. Wells described The Shape of Things to Come as more of a "discussion" than a novel. The book is presented as a series of notes by Dr. Philip Raven, a diplomat in the League of Nations. Alexander Korda deeply admired Wells and asked him to adapt the book into a film. Korda promised Wells complete control over the script.
Wells wrote a screenplay which abridges the book and introduces new elements. It also draws on Wells' "A Story of the Days to Come" and his work on society and economics The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. Wells developed his theory of human progress through The Outline of History and its abridgement. In his mind, humanity was destined to proceed towards the stability of a world government.
The first draft of Wells' film treatment was titled "Whither Mankind?". By all accounts, it was terrible. Wells was too wedded to the ideas of his book and could not create sufficient incident to make a compelling screenplay. Lajos Bíró wrote a detailed memo to Korda about the flaws of Wells' treatment. Korda mused that Things to Come was his "most difficult film to make".
Wells' involvement in the film was heavily promoted during production, with photos of him on the set distributed to the media. The film was billed as "H. G. Wells' Things to Come". Korda spent lavishly on the film. Its budget was reported between £260–300,000.
After attending one of Arthur Bliss' lectures at the Royal Institution, Wells asked the composer to collaborate with him on the film score. Wells gave Bliss explicit instructions on the score's structure because he saw music as part of the film's design. Things to Come was edited to fit the score. Bliss turned his music into a concert suite which was widely performed and recorded. He also used the music from the film's machine sequence in his ballet Checkmate.
Wells wrote a memo to the production staff about the costumes. The technocrats of the future bear a striking resemblance to the samurai who benevolently rule the planet in his 1905 novel A Modern Utopia. The production memo also singles out Fritz Lang's Metropolis as completely antithetical to Wells' vision. He previously ridiculed the film in a 1927 New York Times review. Wells' visions of the future are feasible projections from existing technology like the Boyce Thompson Institute's plant science and Robert H. Goddard's rocketry.
Filming of exteriors began in July 1935 at Denham Film Studios, while the site was still under construction. The film was shot at Elstree Studios and Worton Hall.
After filming had already begun, the Hungarian abstract artist and experimental filmmaker László Moholy-Nagy was commissioned to produce some of the effects sequences for the re-building of Everytown. Moholy-Nagy's approach was partly to treat it as an abstract light show, but only some 90 seconds of material was used, e.g. a protective-suited figure behind corrugated glass. The footage was displayed independently. In the autumn of 1975 a researcher found a further four sequences which had been discarded.
The art design in the film is by Vincent Korda, brother of the producer. The futuristic city of Everytown in the film is based on London: a facsimile of St Paul's Cathedral can be seen in the background.

Reception

Things to Come was voted the ninth best British film of 1936 by Film Weeklys readers. The film earned £350,000 and was the 16th most popular British film in 1935–36. Korda's extravagant budget made recouping his costs difficult, but the film's quality was widely seen as worth the investment. Over time, Things to Come did eventually turn a profit through reissues.
The Times remarked, "It is usually not until they have extinguished the present civilization of the world by war, famine...or some such spectacular catastrophe that our Utopian writers can settle down comfortably to planning new fashions in asbestos clothing." They had high praise for the concepts of the film and its production, "Even Mr. Raymond Massey, though always dignified, can hardly distract the attention from the incomparable scenery which is the real triumph of this film."
In his review for The Spectator, Graham Greene felt the first third was magnificent but lamented the "smug and sentimental" dialogue. Greene cited Wells' The War in the Air while praising the terrifying air raid in Things to Come. Frank Nugent reviewed the film for The New York Times and felt some passages "read like direct quotations from last week's newspapers." He grimly concluded, "There's nothing we can do now but sit back and wait for the holocaust."
Science fiction historian Gary Westfahl felt, "Things to Come qualifies as the first true masterpiece of science fiction cinema...the film's episodic structure and grand ambitions make it the greatest ancestor of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey".
Arthur C. Clarke was perplexed that Wells would be aware of rocket technology yet choose to depict Jules Verne's space gun in the movie. Nevertheless, he had Kubrick watch Things to Come early in the development phase of 2001. Clarke cited it as an example of grounded science fiction, but Kubrick disliked it. After seeing 2001, Frederik Pohl quipped, "...it's a disgrace that the most recent science-fiction movie made with a big budget, good actors and an actual sf writer preparing the script, not aimed at a juvenile market and uncontaminated by camp, is Things to Come...produced in 1936."
Cultural historian Christopher Frayling called Things to Come "a landmark in cinematic design." In 2005, it was nominated for the AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, a list of the top 25 film scores unveiled by the American Film Institute.