6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Four astronauts returning from mankind's first mission to Mars enter a time warp and crash on a 26th Century Earth devastated by atomic war. Our heroes meet with hideous mutants, giant spiders, love-struck beauties in short dresses, and jealous old geezers in sparkly skullcaps as they struggle to save humanity and build a new world.
Starring: Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh, Rod Taylor, Shirley Patterson (I)Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The Warner Archive collection is adding the 1956 time travel tale, World Without End (or "WWE"), to its growing catalog of nostalgic cinema schlock. The film was an attempt by "B"-movie specialist Allied Artist to piggyback on the success of Paramount's The War of the Worlds at a fraction of the budget. Released on a double bill with Indestructible Man starring Lon Chaney Jr., the film quickly came and went, but it has since developed a cult following. Today, it is notable primarily for who worked on it, including a young Australian actor named Rod Taylor, in his first leading role in an American film, and the future director of The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah, who served as "dialogue director" (albeit uncredited).
World Without End was an early Cinemascope production, which was a splurge by Allied Artists, and the image retains the characteristic softness imparted by first-generation anamorphic lenses. The cinematographer was Ellsworth Fredericks (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new scan of an interpositive, which was performed (at 2K) by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, followed by the usual color-correction and cleanup. The resulting image captures the often laughable set design, costumes and makeup in impressive detail that isn't always favorable to this low-rent production, but at least the image is clean and the film's grain is natural and, within the limitations of the source, finely resolved. Colors and densities tend to fluctuate at scene changes, but this is an unavoidable side effect of the process used to create optical dissolves, especially on a low budget. WWE doesn't have an especially rich or intense palette, except for the reds that first appear over the opening image of an atomic blast, then return for the Mars expedition and again in the underground civilization of the future, where they are associated with passion and vitality. With no extras, not even a trailer, WAC has been able to master the 80-minute film on a BD-25, while still retaining a high average bitrate of 33.98 Mbps.
WWE's original mono audio has been taken from an optical track positive and encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The soundtrack is serviceable but unremarkable, with generic effects for familiar elements like gunshots and explosions. The most memorable sound is that of automated doors opening and closing, which anticipates the Starship Enterprise. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and the melodramatic score by Leith Stevens (The War of the Worlds) does what it can to supply suspense and a sense of danger. WWE's audio may not amount to much, but the Blu-ray accurately reproduces the source.
No extras are included. Warner's 2008 DVD (in a double feature with Satellite in the Sky) was similarly bare.
Four years after WWE, Rod Taylor would star in another tale about temporal travel, The Time
Machine, based on H.G. Wells's novel. Ironically, the Wells Estate is reported to have sued
Allied Artists over WWE, claiming that writer/director Edward Bernds misappropriated Wells's
story. The outcome of the suit has not been reported, but it's unlikely that the Estate prevailed.
Aside from the element of time travel, the two plots have little in common, and each is
recognizably a product of its era, with Wells reflecting Victorian concerns about the state of the
British Empire and WWE mirroring the angst of the early nuclear age. (George Pal's
adaptation of Wells's novel for the screen introduced similar elements.) WAC has done their
usual creditable job with WWE, and if you're fond of the film, the presentation is recommended.
1955
Standard Edition
1953
1959
Queen of the Universe / Warner Archive Collection
1958
2K Restoration
1958
2K Restoration
1980
40th Anniversary Special Edition
1979
2+5: Missione Hydra
1966
1951
1951
1958
1955
1953
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Awakening
1979
1958
1966
Special Edition | The Creeping Unknown
1955
Collector's Edition
1988
1958
10th Anniversary Special Edition
2008