THINGS TO COME (1936)
Article #289 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-29-2001
Posting date: 5-15-2002

A story that spans the years concerning war, tyranny and progress.

I’ve always wondered what H.G. Wells thought of the various adaptations of his works, but I suspect that this may be the only one he might have liked; many of the others seem to have little use for the social commentary that was behind much of his work. The movie is talky, but it has a lot to say, and I can’t help but admire the audacity of this movie. The scenes in the future city are breathtaking; there’s no doubt this is one of the major keystones of science fiction cinema. Along with Raymond Massey, it also features Ralph Richardson and Cedric Hardwicke in key roles.

One subtle moment was mentioned by my wife upon viewing this movie; she noticed that a poster shown at one point during the war sequences has the lettering made up of several different fonts. To her, nothing got across how much things had deteriorated by the fact that the printers couldn’t even get together a complete array of letters in a single font.