Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents: The 100 Greatest Science-Fiction Films

By Douglas Brode

Whether you judge by box office receipts, industry awards, or critical accolades, science fiction films are the most popular movies now being produced and distributed around the world. Nor is this phenomenon new. Sci-fi filmmakers and audiences have been exploring fantastic planets, forbidden zones, and lost continents ever since George Méliès’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. In this highly entertaining and knowledgeable book, film historian and pop culture expert Douglas Brode picks the one hundred greatest sci-fi films of all time. Brode’s list ranges from today’s blockbusters to forgotten gems, with surprises for even the most informed fans and scholars. He presents the movies in chronological order, which effectively makes this book a concise history of the sci-fi film genre. A striking (and in many cases rare) photograph accompanies each entry, for which Brode provides a numerical rating, key credits and cast members, brief plot summary, background on the film’s creation, elements of the moviemaking process, analysis of the major theme(s), and trivia. He also includes fun outtakes, including his top ten lists of Fifties sci-fi movies, cult sci-fi, least necessary movie remakes, and “so bad they’re great” classics—as well as the ten worst sci-fi movies (“those highly ambitious films that promised much and delivered nil”). So climb aboard spaceship Brode and journey to strange new worlds from Metropolis (1927) to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781477302477

Book preview

THE LIST

THE 100 GREATEST SCI-FI FILMS

1. Metropolis (1927)

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

3. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

4. Three-way tie: Star Wars Original Trilogy

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

5. Forbidden Planet (1956)

6. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

7. Blade Runner (1982)

8. Tie: Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

9. Children of Men (2006)

10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

11. Avatar (2009)

12. Tie: Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)

13. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

14. Planet of the Apes (1968)

15. The Invisible Man (1933)

16. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

17. Inception (2010)

18. Things to Come (1936)

19. Open Your Eyes/Abre los ojos (1997)

20. The Birds (1963)

21. District 9 (2009)

22. The Time Machine (1960)

23. Jurassic Park (1993)

24. Tie: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Mysterious Island (1961)

25. The Avengers (2012)

26. Alphaville/Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

27. WALL-E (2008)

28. Three-way tie: Star Trek Even Number Trilogy

II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

29. Twelve Monkeys (1995)

30. The Thing (1982)

31. Solaris/Solyaris (1972)

32. The Matrix (1999)

33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

34. The Terminator (1984)

35. Fantastic Planet/La planète sauvage (1973)

36. Back to the Future (1985)

37. The Truman Show (1998)

38. The Thing from Another World (1951)

39. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

40. Gravity (2013)

41. The War of the Worlds (1953)

42. Cloud Atlas (2012)

43. Invaders from Mars (1953)

44. V for Vendetta (2005)

45. Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

46. Tie: Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness (2013)

47. Seconds (1966)

48. Total Recall (1990)

49. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

50. Cocoon (1985)

51. Island of Lost Souls (1932)

52. Man of Steel (2013)

53. 1984 (1956)

54. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

55. Tie: Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and The Black Cat (1934)

56. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind/Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984)

57. The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)

58. RoboCop (1987)

59. Three-way tie: The End of the World Trilogy

The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)

On the Beach (1959)

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

60. The Fly (1986)

61. Tie: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and Them! (1954)

62. Predator (1987)

63. Tie: Destination Moon (1950) and Conquest of Space (1955)

64. THX 1138 (1971)

65. Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

66. Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

67. The Abyss (1989)

68. Sleeper (1973)

69. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

70. Three-way tie: Cliffhangers

Flash Gordon (1936)

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938)

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

71. The Fifth Element (1997)

72. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

73. Escape from New York (1981)

74. The Satan Bug (1965)

75. Tie: Village of the Damned (1960) and The Day of the Triffids (1963)

76. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

77. The Blob (1958)

78. Time After Time (1979)

79. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

80. Space Cowboys (2000)

81. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

82. Tie: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and Minority Report (2002)

83. This Island Earth (1955)

84. Strange Days (1995)

85. Fantastic Voyage (1966)

86. Stargate (1994)

87. Dr. Cyclops (1940)

88. Barbarella (1968)

89. Three-way tie: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

90. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

91. TRON: Legacy (2010)

92. Tie: Westworld (1973) and Futureworld (1976)

93. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

94. Woman in the Moon/Frau im Mond (1929)

95. Men in Black (1997)

96. The Last Man on Earth (1964)

97. Heavy Metal (1981)

98. Just Imagine (1930)

99. Transformers (2007)

100. A Trip to the Moon/Le voyage dans la lune (1902)

A TRIP TO THE MOON/LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902)

— RANKING: 100 —

TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING: Live action combined with an early version of animation led to the first significant example of cinéma fantastique in A Trip to the Moon/Le voyage dans la lune (1902), Georges Méliès’s still-charming experiment. Courtesy: Star-Film.

CREDITS

Star Film; Georges Méliès, dir.; Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, novels; Méliès, scr.; Méliès, pro.; Michaut, Lucien Tainguy, cin.; Méliès, ed.; Méliès, prod. design; Claudel, art dir.; Jeanne d’Alcy, costumes; 14 min. (16 fps), 8 min. (25 fps); Color/B&W; 1.33:1.

CAST

Georges Méliès (Prof. Barbenfouillis/Man in the Moon); Victor André (Star Gazer); Bleuette Bernon (Lady in the Moon); Brunnet (First Astronomer); Jeanne d’Alcy (Pretty Girl); Henri Delannoy (Space Craft Captain); Depierre (Voyager).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

Ow!

THE MAN IN THE MOON, AS THE ROCKET APPEARS TO CRASH INTO HIS FACE

BACKGROUND

Science fiction as we know it, particularly works that deal with space travel, was invented by two authors: France’s Jules Verne (1828–1905) and England’s H. G. Wells (1866–1946). Before their contributions, tales of journeys to the stars were fantasy of a romantic order, dating back to the earliest civilizations. During the nineteenth century, as science replaced alchemy and then inched toward respectability, Verne and Wells were among the first to invent a modern form of fiction that correlated to more enlightened views.

THE PLOT

Barbenfouillis, a university professor, addresses his colleagues in a classroom, sharing his theory that a rocket could transport earthlings to the moon. They shout him down, but their disbelief only encourages Barbenfouillis to prove his idea by building a huge gun and a bullet-like craft. In time, he and some friends launch into space. They crash on the moon and, while sleeping on its surface, are visited by strange beings from the sky. Skeletal creatures capture the humans and drag them before their cold-hearted queen. The earthlings fight their way free, hurry back to their craft, and return to Earth.

THE FILM

Georges Méliès (1861–1938) brought the visions of Verne and Wells to the new (and science-based) storytelling medium called The Movies. A Paris-based magician-turned-director, he is known to have read Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (De la terre à la lune, 1865); recent research suggests he happened upon Wells’s The First Men in the Moon (1901) shortly before setting to work on A Trip to the Moon. This would explain why the first half of the film is drawn from Verne’s book while the second owes far more to Wells’s novel.

THEME

A Trip to the Moon offers an intriguing early example of the motion picture, a product for public consumption as well as an emergent art form, as a means of personal expression for its writer-director; or, as the French would come to call such rare talents, "auteur." However much Méliès borrowed from previous narratives, he also used his own idea of magic: strange, haunting appearances and disappearances constantly occur in the film. If adapted from pre-existing sources, A Trip to the Moon is Georges Méliès’s film, one that set the pace for all cinema.

TRIVIA

If the legend is to be believed, Méliès happened on film by accident. Fascinated by the trick of making a woman disappear onstage, he accomplished this by tossing down a small amount of explosive powder, resulting in a momentary whiff of black smoke that allowed a woman to slip down a trapdoor. Méliès dreamed of taking this conventional effect a step further: a disappearance without any such cover. But how? In 1896, he wandered into a nickelodeon featuring films by the Lumière brothers. Called "actualités, these fifty-second documentaries were shot in diverse sections of Paris. While Méliès was enjoying this realistic" incarnation of film, something unintended appeared onscreen. A ripped piece of film had been edited back together, and, in the process, a half second or so had been lost. To Méliès’s amazement, a woman walking across the screen suddenly disappeared. He guessed what had happened and realized that celluloid could solve his problem. Among the first of his short movies, most of which are lost today, was The Vanishing Lady (Escamotage d’une dame au théâtre Robert Houdin, 1896).

If, by the turn of the century, the Lumières had pioneered one aspect of filmmaking, shooting on the streets for realism, Méliès took another direction, creating what may have been the first studio. Forsaking realism, he and his crew employed everything from papier-mâché to painted backdrops to create alternative universes. Not only are the surface and subterranean areas of the moon virtually animated in a futuristic fairy tale sense, but so too are those earlier sequences on Earth, including the lecture classroom scene and the blastoff from an impossibly long launcher, providing a precursor of what would come to be called surrealism in the graphic arts. In his primitive way, Méliès set the standard for experimental movies by Max Fleischer and Walt Disney in which actors enter a cartoon world.

The film was originally released in color, though, of course, color film stock would not exist for several decades. A team of artists achieved this effect by painting colors onto every single frame of film, a laborious task to say the least. The manner in which Méliès’s staff achieved this and other effects is depicted in Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011).

METROPOLIS (1927)

— RANKING: 1 —

THE BIRTH OF DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE-FICTION CINEMA: In the early twenty-first century, a fascistic leader (Alfred Abel) finds himself spellbound by the plan of a mad inventor (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) to replace humans with robots. Courtesy: Universum Film/UFA.

CREDITS

UFA; Fritz Lang, dir.; Thea von Harbou, novel; von Harbou, Lang, scr.; Erich Pommer, pro.; Gottfried Huppertz, mus.; Karl Freund, Günther Rittau, Walter Ruttmann, cin.; Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht, art dir.; Aenne Willkomm, costumes; Edgar G. Ulmer, Hunte, Kettelhut, Vollbrecht, set design; Eugen Schüfftan, special visual effects; Ernst Kunstmann, Konstantin Irmen-Tschet, Kettelhut, F/X; 210 min. (original print), 93 min. (German re-release), 123 min. (2002 restoration); B&W; 1.33:1.

CAST

Brigitte Helm (Maria/Robot Maria); Alfred Abel (Joh Fredersen); Gustav Fröhlich (Young Freder); Rudolf Klein-Rogge (C. A. Rotwang); Fritz Rasp (Thin Man); Theodor Loos (Josaphat); Erwin Biswanger (Worker #11811); Heinrich George (Grot); Fritz Alberti (Man of Babel); Grete Berger, Rose Lichtenstein, Max Dietze (workers); Beatrice Garga (Woman of Eternal Gardens); Heinrich Gotho (Master of Ceremonies).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.

MARIA’S FINAL LINE

BACKGROUND

Immediately following World War I, Erich Pommer of Universum Film (UFA) set into motion a series of dark thrillers that captured, often in fantasy, the daily horror of life in the Weimar Republic. The premiere project, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), was originally to have been directed by Fritz Lang (1890–1976), who dropped out for personal and artistic reasons. Over the next several years, Lang became an avid Communist, consuming works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and watching masterpieces of Soviet montage that conveyed radical political ideas via editing. Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou (1888–1954), set to work on an adaptation of her dystopian novel. During this same period, von Harbou grew ever more intrigued by the rise of fascism, in time coming to subscribe to Nazi values.

THE PLOT

In a futuristic super-city, the working classes slave at machines that all but devour them, in time turning those who perform such dreary labor into automatons. Meanwhile, the ruling classes carouse in a high tower. A spokesperson for the underclass, Maria, awakens the consciousness of Freder, son of the powerful leader, with her proclamation that all men are brothers. He slips off to learn the truth and becomes radicalized after experiencing the horrid existence of the masses. Meanwhile, his father, Fredersen, enlists the mad scientist Rotwang to develop a machine-man to replace workers. The two conspire to create a robot version of Maria that can be used to incite workers to violence, thus providing those in power with an excuse to eliminate them.

THE FILM

Lang later admitted that while he had achieved the look he wanted for the film, von Harbou had seized control of the movie’s meaning. As a result, Metropolis expresses precisely the opposite point of view from what he had intended. The film initially appears to be shaping up as a radical futuristic allegory, calling for a worker’s revolution against the ruling elite. At midpoint, this reverses, and Metropolis takes on an anti-revolutionary tone, warning against such rebellion while insisting that a fascistic leader must be tolerated, despite excesses. When the Nazis embraced Metropolis as their favorite film, Lang expressed disgust with the final product; von Harbou, delight.

The concept of photographing actors on bare soundstages while making them appear to be standing in an elaborately created world, fashioned from tabletop miniatures, was developed for Metropolis by Eugen Schüfftan. This would become known as the Schüfftan Process.

Metropolis was severely cut after its initial showings, and to this day, cine-detectives search the globe for bits and pieces, believed to have been lost forever, in an attempt to fully restore the original.

THEME

Metropolis pioneered epic science fiction as religious allegory. Initially, the city’s cathedral is all but abandoned. At the finale, however, everyone comes together on its steps to make things right. Maria tells Bible tales, including the story of the Tower of Babel, in catacombs not unlike the hiding places of the early Christians. Huge crosses are on view there. Freder is inspired to become a messianic figure, representing the Second Coming. The names of his adoptive parents, Maria and Josaphat, translate into English as Mary and Joseph. H. G. Wells, who believed the first necessary step to creating a future utopia was to outlaw all religion, became so enraged while watching Metropolis that he at once set to work on an alternative vision, filmed in 1936 as Things to Come.

TRIVIA

The print that circulated for eighty years lacked key elements necessary for the plot to make sense. Gone were the skeletal Thin Man, an operative for Fredersen, and all mention of the inspirational woman Hel (including her statue, signifying Hel’s importance to Fredersen), deceased wife of Fredersen and, earlier, wife to Rotwang, beloved by both. In the ending of the abbreviated version, Rotwang appears to pursue Maria in hopes of killing her; actually, his mania has convinced him that she is Hel reborn and he hopes to recapture his lost love.

George Lucas in part modeled the Star Wars C-3PO on the robot from Metropolis. The city in Superman comics and movies is named after the one in this film. Likewise, Ridley Scott visually referenced Metropolis in many of the Blade Runner images.

Rock artists of the 1980s fell in love with the visionary piece. Queen featured scenes in their Radio Ga Ga music video. Record producer Giorgio Moroder convinced the band’s lead vocalist Freddie Mercury and other musicians that Metropolis resembled a full-length music video, leading to a 1984 re-release of the film with color tints and a rock music score.

WOMAN IN THE MOON/FRAU IM MOND (1929)

— RANKING: 94 —

. . . WHERE NO WOMAN HAS GONE BEFORE: A proto-feminist motif entered into cinematic sci-fi with the appearance of Gerda Maurus (far right) as the title character, a courageous space pioneer who disproves any prejudices as to gender on the final frontier. Courtesy: Universum Film/UFA.

CREDITS

UFA; Fritz Lang, dir.; Thea von Harbou, novel; Lang, von Harbou, Prof. Hermann Oberth, scr.; Lang, pro.; Willy Schmidt-Gentner, mus.; Curt Courant, Oskar Fischinger, Konstantin Irmen-Tschet/Tschetwerikoff, Otto Kanturek, cin.; Emil Hasler, Otto Hunte, Karl Vollbrecht, art dir.; Fischinger, Irmen-Tschet/Tschetwerikoff, F/X; Joseph Danilowatz, Dr. Gustav Wolff, artistic collaboration; various running times: 156, 162, 200 min.; B&W; 1.33:1

CAST

Klaus Pohl (Prof. Georg Manfeldt); Willy Fritsch (Wolf Helius); Gustav von Wangenheim (Ingenieur Hans Windegger); Gerda Maurus (Friede Velten); Gustl Stark-Gstettenbaur (Gustav); Fritz Rasp (Der Mann); Tilla Durieux, Hermann Vallentin, Max Zilzer, Mahmud Terja Bey, Borwin Walth (Fünf Gehirne und Scheckbücher); Die Maus Josephine (The Mouse).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

Never does not exist for the human mind. Only Not yet!

HELIUS, TO DISBELIEVERS IN SPACE TRAVEL

BACKGROUND

From the moment the husband-wife team decided to move ahead with a follow-up to Metropolis, Lang and von Harbou agreed that the semi-sequel project would be their adaptation of her 1928 novel, Die Frau im Mond. The collaborators would use as their template Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (De la terre à la lune, 1865), with its probable outcome according to rocket science at the time. In other words, Lang and von Harbou would produce pure science fiction. Consciously, they rejected the alternative aesthetic, the basis of H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon (1901): a fanciful depiction of grotesque creatures inhabiting heavenly bodies. This alternative form would in time come to be called space opera.

They brought in Hermann Oberth (1894–1989), considered the greatest living resource on space travel, as their scientific consultant. Oberth insisted that an actual projectile would likely proceed as a series of three successive rockets-within-rockets. Likewise, he added the sequence in which a ten-to-zero countdown precedes the lift-off. This set the pace not only for all future films on the subject but also for real-life space programs, beginning with Nazi Germany’s V-2 rocket program, which Oberth oversaw. Also involved in the film (and, later, the V-2) was the young Wernher von Braun (1912–1977), who, even then, as a teenager, was attempting to solve likely problems of space travel at the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel).

THE PLOT

The European scientific community laughs when Professor Manfeldt argues that the moon may be covered with gold. One man who does not scoff is Helius, a sharp businessman. He considers linking his keen entrepreneurial instincts with Manfeldt’s obvious, if unappreciated, genius by journeying into space together. The planned expedition is complicated by, among other things, a gold cartel that wants to sabotage the adventure for fear that an abundance of that mineral might bring down the value of their current holdings, and a mischievous child who, having read one too many pulp fiction novels, stows away in the rocket. The ultimate problem for Helius, however, is that two of his fellow travelers are Friede, the woman he loves, and Manfeldt, currently engaged to the lovely lady.

THE FILM

Complaints that the movie is overly long, particularly the earthbound sequences, reveal a naiveté about narrative forms in the silent cinema in general and in German Weimar-era films in particular. As genre conventions for sci-fi moviemaking were not yet in place (indeed, Woman in the Moon established many of the fundamentals), the extended melodrama, involving a new variation on the old romantic triangle, did not violate viewer expectations at the time because, in fact, there were none. Always, the idea had been to create a believable narrative about worldly characters so that, when the journey begins, the viewer carries such anchored-in-actuality emotions off into space.

THEME

However horrific von Harbou’s politics as a member of the Nazi Party, her view of women must be considered proto-feminist. Friede, her beauty accepted as a given, is included on the space voyage because of her imposing mental abilities and considerable stamina. More impressive still, unlike such later female scientists as Julie Adams in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Friede is not swiftly stripped down to a swimsuit; rather, she is always wearing a shirt, tie, and pants identical to those of her male companions. Even her hair is mannishly styled, though this adds to, rather than detracts from, her potent femininity. She turns out to be the best decision-maker on the space craft. Indeed, her solution to their low-oxygen problem solves everything for everyone involved.

In contrast to Metropolis, the previous Lang–von Harbou collaboration, Woman in the Moon does not play as a religious allegory. Nevertheless, the need to maintain old-fashioned faith in an increasingly secular and scientific world is forwarded as a key element. When the stowaway child becomes concerned that there will not be enough oxygen for a return trip, Friede consoles him by saying, Let’s pray to God.

In von Harbou’s novel, the lure of gold on the moon serves mainly as the plot catalyst that justifies this dangerous trip. Lang, collaborating on the screenplay, used this aspect of the narrative for political purposes: the gold is a corrupting element, leading the otherwise admirable scientist Manfeldt to his death. This anti-capitalist attitude, which von Harbou scorned, led in part to their decision to divorce. In 1934, Lang left Germany for Paris, then briefly England, and, a few years later, the United States; von Harbou remained behind, eventually joining the Third Reich.

TRIVIA

Though the film portrays the initial approach to the moon as accurately as possible in terms of the then-current knowledge, the lunar surfaces recall the papier-mâché approach of Méliès some twenty-five years earlier. Lang established the practice of combining appealingly eerie renderings of other worlds with psychologically complex characters.

Woman in the Moon contains what may be the first example of an apparently purposeful self-referencing device within a sci-fi film. Shortly after arrival, as the men search for water and gold, Friede sets up a motion picture camera and shoots a documentary about the moon—precisely what von Harbou suggested to friends she might have preferred to do instead of creating a fictional film on the subject.

Willy Ley, who would later write the book on which the George Pal film Conquest of Space (1955) would be based and serve as scientific technical advisor for the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet TV series (1950–1955), assisted as technical advisor.

JUST IMAGINE (1930)

— RANKING: 98 —

HIGHWAY IN THE SKY: The world’s first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing science-fiction musical also contained a tender romance threatened by the anti-individualism of a technological future. Here, LN-18 (Maureen O’Sullivan) and J-21 (John Garrick) momentarily escape the crowd. Courtesy: Fox Film Corp.

CREDITS

Fox Film Corporation; David Butler, dir.; Butler, Buddy G. DeSylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson, scr.; Brown, DeSylva, Henderson, pro.; Hugo Friedhofer, Arthur Kay, mus.; Ernest Palmer, cin.; Irene Morra, ed.; Stephen Goosson, Ralph Hammeras, set design; Alice O’Neill, Dolly Tree, Sophie Wachner, costumes; Joseph E. Aiken, special sound effects; Seymour Felix, choreographer; 113 min.; B&W; 1.20:1

CAST

El Brendel (Single O); Maureen O’Sullivan (LN-18); John Garrick (J-21); Marjorie White (D-6); Frank Albertson (RT-42); Hobart Bosworth (Z-4); Kenneth Thomson (MT-3); Mischa Auer (B-36); Ivan Linow (Loko/Boko); Joyzelle Joyner (Loo Loo/Boo Boo); Wilfred Lucas (X-10); George Irving (Head of Marriage Tribunal); J. M. Kerrigan (Traffic Policeman).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

There is one secret, the greatest of all, that remains a mystery: Mars!

THE SCIENTIST Z-4

BACKGROUND

Impressed by the success of Fritz Lang’s science-fiction epics, executives at Fox Film green-lighted a script featuring a combination of Lang’s two premises: a city of the future, which dominates the first half of the film, and a trip into outer space, the second. With the advent of sound, most in-production projects were rethought to include this suddenly popular element, particularly music. Anyone who had enjoyed production success on the New York stage was invited to relocate to the West Coast and become a producer. Buddy DeSylva (1895–1950) and his then-partners Lew Brown (1893–1958) and Ray Henderson (1896–1970), who together had come up with the Tin Pan Alley musical Good News (1927), were no exceptions. They recreated this project for film, adding vaudeville-style gag lines and endless songs.

THE PLOT

In the year 1980, J-21 meets his lover LN-18 on the sly. The monolithic Marriage Tribunal has decreed that, as a socialite, she should marry MT-3, a better catch owing to his supposed accomplishments in big business. A mysterious emissary of Z-4 contacts J-21. Z-4, a supposedly mad scientist who has constructed a rocket to launch toward Mars, needs a daring volunteer willing to accept the risk, and J-21 realizes that such an achievement would allow him a rebuttal at his final hearing as to his worthiness as a mate for LN-18. During the star journey, J-21 and his friend RT-42 are accompanied by an unlikely stowaway: Single O, who only recently was raised from the dead by an experimental process. On the Red Planet, the trio encounters a world of doppelgangers, every Martian contending with his or her evil twin.

THE FILM

Just Imagine has always been recalled as a critical and commercial flop. It was neither: the New York Times hailed this bizarre concoction as highly imaginative, and box-office intake proved so strong that the film swiftly recouped its then-immense $1.5 million budget. The vision forwarded here, while borrowing liberally from Lang, brought to the American public such disorienting and far-reaching concepts as 250-story skyscrapers interconnected by highways in the sky, immense TV screens and sight-as-well-as-sound phones, pills replacing liquor for instant highs, test-tube babies, and gravity neutralizers for rocket science development. The film also borrowed from that era’s pulp fiction publications, as well as from Méliès’s flickers, ancient societies led by Amazon women in exotic costumes—that is, heavenly bodies existing on Heavenly Bodies. Such revered works as George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), as well as virtually every movie included in this volume, owe a huge debt to this bold experiment. The claim that Just Imagine is hopelessly corny can be countered by the argument that here we find high camp long before Susan Sontag adjectivized that term in the mid-sixties to describe such guilty pleasures from Hollywood’s fabled past.

THEME

Just Imagine explores the idea of nostalgia. Director Butler opens the piece with authentic footage of New York in the 1880s, recalling that in those good ol’ days, people were attempting to travel in vehicles that moved faster and to inhabit buildings that reached higher. Still, from the perspective of contemporary 1930, when Just Imagine was released, the late nineteenth century appears to have been a gentler era. Such a prologue sets into motion a projection of the future in which the fast-paced 1930s, when considered from the perspective of a half-century later, constituted a far more relaxed moment in our social history. Nostalgia, then, has less to do with the realities of any one era than with the point of view from which it is observed.

TRIVIA

The Academy Awards honored Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras, the conceptual talents of Just Imagine, with a joint nomination for best art direction. As a result of his pioneering work here, Goosson was tapped by Frank Capra to create the ethereal art design for the 1937 fantasy film Lost Horizon. Hammeras, who had already worked on the silent The Lost World (1925), would in time become Walt Disney’s special effects photographer of choice for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The Academy Award nomination marked the first time that Hollywood openly acknowledged the potential for high-quality work within the emergent sci-fi genre. The photographing of dazzling constructions for Just Imagine, achieved via glass pictures and intricate miniatures, was the work of an uncredited Willis H. O’Brien. At the time, O’Brien was straddling his two greatest successes, The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933)—both towering fantasy films that, owing to a lack of any sci-fi genre elements, could not be included in this volume.

During the Depression, sci-fi films would mostly constitute cliffhangers such as Buck Rogers (1939), produced at Universal. Fox Film Corporation allowed the avatars of such serials to borrow heavily from Just Imagine, in terms of both stock footage clips and use of props. The rocket ship, as well as the heroes’ handguns, are present in the three Flash Gordon chapter plays discussed later in this book. Also, the image of space maidens dancing suggestively around the statue of a primitive god would be used to round out a pagan celebration at Emperor Ming’s pleasure palace in Flash Gordon. And the ornate scientist’s lab, conceived and designed by Kenneth Strickfaden, would be borrowed by Universal, becoming a staple of their horror films, including the various Frankenstein franchise features.

Just Imagine may be the first sound-era American film to include a gay reference. The dialogue and the manner in which the actors were directed to say key lines imply that the relationship between the hero and his roommate, despite their apparent interest in pretty girls, is greater and deeper than casual friendship. Shortly after landing on Mars, El Brendel’s character develops an intense interest in a muscular warrior and, despite the presence of a female ruler, insists that "he’s the real ‘queen’ around here!"

FRANKENSTEIN (1931) AND THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)

— RANKING: 8 (TIE) —

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

THE MODERN PROMETHEUS: This advertising poster for the film’s re-release captured not only James Whale’s aesthetic sensibility but also Mary Shelley’s vision of the then-emergent scientist as our contemporary tragic hero, who intends only good for humankind, but inadvertently releases horror and destruction. Courtesy: Universal.

CREDITS

Universal Pictures; James Whale, dir.; Mary W. Shelley, novel; Peggy Webling, play; John L. Balderston, Garrett Fort, Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert Florey, scr.; Carl Laemmle Jr., E. M. Asher, pro.; Bernhard Kaun, mus.; Arthur Edeson, Paul Ivano, cin.; Clarence Kolster, Maurice Pivar, ed.; Charles D. Hall, art dir.; Jack P. Pierce, makeup; Franz, Oscar, and Paul Dallons, F/X; 70 min.; B&W; 1.37:1.

CAST

Colin Clive (Henry Frankenstein); Mae Clarke (Elizabeth); John Boles (Victor Moritz); Boris Karloff (The Monster); Edward Van Sloan (Dr. Waldman); Frederick Kerr (Baron Frankenstein); Dwight Frye (Fritz); Lionel Belmore (Burgomaster); Marilyn Harris (Little Maria); Francis Ford (Hans).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

It’s alive . . . alive!

DR. FRANKENSTEIN AS HIS MONSTER ACTUALLY MOVES

BACKGROUND

In 1814, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851) ran away from England to the continent with her lover, and later husband, poet and scientist Percy Bysshe Shelley. By some accounts, they spent a night, on a dare, on the grounds of Germany’s deserted Frankenstein Castle after hearing that it was haunted. Precisely what they experienced there remains shrouded in mystery. During the summer of 1816, they joined Lord Byron in Switzerland at Villa Diodati. On a dark and stormy night, Byron suggested they all write ghost stories. Mary’s contribution combined strange memories of the haunted rendezvous with details from her lover’s current electrical experiments. During the next two years, Mary Shelley refined the book, with Percy serving as her mentor.

With the advent of sound, Carl Laemmle Jr. (1908–1979), the head of production at Universal, hoped to feature his greatest silent star, Lon Chaney, as Dracula, then as the Frankenstein monster. Before he could play the roles, however, Chaney died, and Bela Lugosi, who had made a name for himself as Dracula on the New York stage, was offered the part. When Dracula (1931) succeeded at the box office, Lugosi was asked to play Frankenstein’s monster. Fearing that a nonspeaking role might not benefit his budding career, Lugosi turned it down. The role went to an obscure English character actor, Boris Karloff (1887–1969).

THE PLOT

The demented hunchback Fritz collects bodies for his master, Henry Frankenstein, who re-assembles parts into a composite corpse, which he plans to re-animate via electricity. Elizabeth, Henry’s young bride-to-be, becomes concerned about the long hours her intended spends in a watchtower, and she attempts to bring her beloved back to reality. Tragically, he has created a thing with the brain of a criminal (after Fritz accidentally dropped the healthy specimen). On the wedding day of Henry and Elizabeth, the monster arrives as an uninvited guest.

THE FILM

Based less on the novel by Shelley than on a stage version by Peggy Webling, the film, like so many Universal releases that followed, offers a combination of science fiction and horror. In her 1818 novel, Shelley had avoided the term monster, using instead creature. First onstage in a simplified version, then on film, the creature becomes a monstrosity, in part owing to the iconic makeup conceived and created by Jack P. Pierce, who added the flat head and neck bolts. Director James Whale (1889–1957) employed an Expressionistic approach used earlier in Tod Browning’s horror classic Dracula and, before that, in Universal’s silent thrillers. Consequently, Frankenstein came to be perceived as a Gothic monster show. In Shelley’s novel, almost everything takes place in sunlight, with the European settings presented in an ultra-realistic manner.

TRIVIA

In Shelley’s novel, the title character’s first name is Victor. This was changed to Henry, owing to a concern that the original sounded too Germanic. The prejudice toward Germany had been in effect since World War I and increased with the ever-growing rumbles of political discord there in the early 1930s.

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)

TO A NEW WORLD OF GODS AND MONSTERS: The words of Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger, far right) will soon come to haunt Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive, far left) once he introduces the bride (Elsa Lanchester) to the creature (Boris Karloff). Courtesy: Universal.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

William Hurlbut, R. C. Sherriff, Lawrence G. Blochman, scr.; Franz Waxman, mus.; John J. Mescall, cin.; Ted J. Kent, ed.; Charles D. Hall, art dir.; David S. Horsley, Ken Strickfaden, F/X; John P. Fulton, Cleo E. Baker, visual effects; 75 min.; B&W; 1.37:1.

ADDITIONAL CAST

Elsa Lanchester (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley/The Bride); Valerie Hobson (Elizabeth); Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorius); Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron); Douglas Walton (Percy Bysshe Shelley); Una O’Connor (Minnie); E. E. Clive (Burgomaster); O. P. Heggie (Hermit); John Carradine (Hunter).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

To a new world of gods and monsters!

DR. PRETORIUS, DRUNKENLY TOASTING THE CREATURE AND HIS MATE

THE PLOT

The creature survives a fire that consumes the old mill and is now terrorizing the countryside. Flamboyant Dr. Pretorius attempts to convince the doctor that a bride should be created and the world populated with a man-made race.

THE FILM

James Whale drew on legends surrounding the novel’s creation to create a bizarre yet delicate prologue involving the poets Byron and Shelley, as well as Mary Shelley. Whale had attempted to add a level of black comedy to Frankenstein, but studio executives curbed that effort. Owing to the film’s popularity, Whale found himself in demand for the sequel, which afforded him a greater degree of artistic freedom. He purposefully chose an over-the-top style, marked by self-conscious outlandishness. Whale’s approach emphasized that none of this should be taken seriously, but rather viewed as a grotesque comic opera.

Notable too is the artistic use of the camera, which had to be kept still for the original so that the simple microphones would not pick up noises. By the time of the sequel, post-dubbing had been perfected, freeing the camera to move at the director’s whim. In this film, it scurries along beside a crazed Una O’Connor as she darts past Gothic arches.

THEME

If