I decided to watch a couple older science fiction movies on sunday mornings, and then blog about them. I'm up early anyway and it's a good excuse to watch some movies I haven't seen in a while. I'd like to watch something good each week but that isn't always going to happen. This week the movies have a common theme. End of the world. You know, I'm lookin' forward to that. The traffic should be better.
Five (1951) by writer director Arch Obler is supposed to be the first post nuclear holocaust film, at least according to Robert Osborne over at Turner Classic Movies, and I know he wouldn't lie to me. TCM ran Five the other night and I upgraded the copy that I had to DVDR. It's not out on DVD for some reason. Arch Obler was a radio drama guy who made some movies, most of which I have not seen. Five is set in California, shot mostly around the beach house in Malibu that Obler had designed by Frank LLoyd Wright. It's a nice spare little building which creates an interesting setting for the drama that plays out. The title refers to the number of people that are left. All were safely somewhere and they weren't effected by the radioactive dust. The only trace of the missing humans are occasional skeletons scattered about. First we meet Roseanne, the only woman, wondering around. She comes across Michael, who has a place by the sea. They hole up there, starting to farm. Along comes Charles, the only black man, and his old boss, who quickly dies of radiation poisoning. Charles pitches in, working along side Michael to keep everything going. Then Roseanne has a baby. A little while later Eric washes up on the shore. He had been in Europe and everyone is dead over there too. Michael likes to plant crops and stay out of the city. Eric doesn't feel the work is necessary when there are warehouses of food in the city. Eric is a big racist who doesn't even like sharing a room with Charles. Eric tricks Roseanne into leaving. He secretly kills Charles before he goes. In the city Roseanne finds Eric has no intention of returning to the beach house. Eric finds out he has radiation poisoning and runs off crying like a little baby. Abandoned, Roseanne heads back to the beach house, the baby dying along the way, and the farming continues. It's a bit sad, but what else could you expect from an end of the world story. I first heard of this movie because of my interest in Frank LLoyd Wright. Back in the 80's I kept an eye out for movies with his houses in them. I saw many of them on TCM. This might be the first to have a Wright building featured. It's a low budget film that has a few problems born out of poverty but they aren't anything to concern yourself with, the story is mostly pretty good. It's sounds like I've described the whole movie but the best of the story is not in that synopsis. It's in the details, a nice bunch of bits and pieces that are well worth seeing.
TCM ran a second end of the world feature after Five. In The World The Flesh & The Devil (1959) radioactive dust kills everyone. Harry Belafonte is trapped underground in a mine in Pennsylvania. When he finally gets out, after 5 days, everyone is gone. He heads to New York City where he holds up in a nice building. Thirty four minutes into the movie a woman shows up. A blond white woman played by Inger Stevens. Harry helps get some power to her building using a generator. A friendship develops which could lead to something more but Harry holds back. Mel Ferrer shows up on a boat and there is even more tension. Both sexual and racial. It leads to shooting guns. In the end the trio gets back together again and walks into the sunset while the movie flashes a "The Beginning" sign. I hadn't seen this movie before and I liked it pretty much. It's more what I would like to be doing if I was left alone at the end of the world. I'd stay in the city, go shopping for things, occasionally burn something down or blow up a car. You know the usual thing. You'd have to learn how to hot wire a car unless you stay close to a car lot. I like the look of the movie, there are a lot of nice shots of New York in 1959. The streets are empty and it looks pretty cool, especially in black and white. The music by Miklos Rozsa is pretty darn good too. He's done a lot of movie scores. I bet you've seen some film he did the music for, it's a pretty impressive list. Like Five, TWTF&TD has a lot to think about. I pretty much ignored that and watched the survivors flailing about. There are touches of reality in both visions and they have their heavy handed moments. I'm still glad I have seen them and might watch them again in the future.
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