Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Movie Moments: #105

  

When Worlds Collide (1951)

Comment:
Today in the online edition of the Sydney Morning Herald there is an item captioned “The World Is Not Ending.”  It’s by Ross Gittins and it refers to the share market falls.  When I first saw the headline I thought it was reassurance that despite global warming predictions, climate change, terrorism, global financial crises and London under siege, the purported Mayan calendar prediction of the end of the world in 2012, as depicted in the movie by that name, was not coming to pass.

Which started me thinking:  What is my favourite end of the world movie?  Mad Max?  On the Beach (filmed in Melbourne in 1959, Ava Gardner was reported as having said that Melbourne was “the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world”.  The reality is that it was a journo’s tongue in cheek quote attributed to her as a joke but which ended up being published as being by her).  Independence Day?  The Birds? 12 Monkeys?  Deep Impact?  Dr Strangelove?  28 Fays Later?  Nope, it’s a relative oldie, When Worlds Collide.  Pre CGI, pre most everything, it is still worth watching 60 years on. 

Synopsis
When a fast travelling star is discovered on a collision course with Earth, ETA 8 months, a group of people seek to build a modern day spaceship Noah’s Ark, those going to be selected by ballot.

Quote:
Dr. Emery Bronson: Hendron will pay you on delivery. Time is all that counts. The money doesn't matter at all.
David Randall: With me, doctor, money always matters.
Dr. Emery Bronson:  Perhaps the day may arrive when money won't mean anything, not to you... nor anyone.
David Randall:  When that happens to me, I'll be six feet under.
[Randall is taken aback when Bronson just stares at him intently puffing on his pipe

Link:
Trailer:

Trivia:
A remake is in the works for 2012, if we last that long.


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