bellino-angelo2014 This is one of the least known sci-fi movies from the 1950s, but it's one of the best of the era. The great thing about this movie is that it concerns the lives of the characters and their personal problems.The plot is about a group of researchers that after a trip in Africa discover some shocking news, that the star Bellus will collide to Earth, destroying the planet. Soon they begin to build a giant rocket ship that will take a group of survivors in Zyra, a safer planet.The best part of the movie (for me) was the part of all the cataclysms (mountains crumbling, giant sea waves, the Brooklyn Bridge auto-destroying in pieces), and the music fits with the viewer's emotions. I also liked the chemistry between the two main characters (Richard Derr and Barbara Rush), especially in the night-club scene. And the ending is very superb for a 1951 sci-fi movie!This is a sci-fi movie that every sci-fi fan must see almost once in their life.

Leofwine_draca WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE is a very early example of the science fiction/disaster movie which feels remarkably modern in terms of plotting to later fare such as DEEP IMPACT. It involves an astronomer who discovers that a planet is heading on a collision course with Earth leading to massive loss of life. Instead of trying to blow the rogue planet up a la Armageddon, those in the know decide to build a space ship and colonise another planet instead. Seen today, this feels low budget and dated at times, but I found it quite interesting. The film is heavy on the moralising and sermonising, but the idea of a life-or-death lottery is well-handled and the ending very suspenseful. Watch out for Roy Thinnes and Stuart Whitman in bit parts.

Scott LeBrun Astronomers have discovered a new star and planet, which get named Bellus and Zyra, and as it so happens they are on a collision course with Earth. They're traveling at an extremely high speed, so the people of Earth don't have much time in which to build spaceships capable of transporting them to Zyra, which they have to HOPE will be capable of supporting Earth life.Although producer George Pal set the bar even higher with his impressive filming of "The War of the Worlds" two years later, this is a pretty good example of early 50s sci-fi. Shot in beautiful Technicolor, it touches upon religious themes and shows us how humans are always at both their best and their worst in such times of crisis. We see several characters decide that they're more important and more worthy of surviving. The icy cold rich man Stanton (John Hoyt) is just one example. Sometimes it pushes emotional buttons (a stray female dog found by a child), but it never gets overly sentimental.In fact, it goes out of its way to be clinical in its approach, taking on a "docu-drama" feel like many other sci-fi films of the 1950s. It's heavy on exposition and human drama for its first half, but any viewers bored with this sort of material will be rewarded with the second half. The Oscar winning special effects are quite enjoyable, indeed, especially the image of NYC whose streets have turned into raging rivers. The action sequences are first rate. Still, there might not be quite enough spectacle to satisfy some modern viewers.There are no big, big stars in this cast, but there is plenty of solid character actor talent. Richard Derr is the engaging hero of the story, a pilot who becomes involved in the early going, and Barbara Rush is his leading lady. Particularly good among the supporting players is Larry Keating as Dr. Cole Hendron, our scientific expert. Hoyt does a superb job at really getting you to hate his character. A humanist he is not."When Worlds Collide" is good fun. If you love sci-fi from this era, you'll likely have a fine time with it.Based on the novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie.Seven out of 10.

classicsoncall There were some great science fiction movies coming out of the Fifties, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "Forbidden Planet" (1956) are ones that immediately come to mind. Contrary to what a host of reviewers on this board have to say, I don't think this was one of them. With a title like "When Worlds Collide", I expected a bit more colliding in the movie than actually occurred. Most of the story had to do with preparatory work to get ready for the eventual destruction of Earth by a runaway star and it's orbiting planet, or vice versa as the case may be. Inserted into the picture was a romantic triangle of sorts that managed to work itself out over the course of the story, but it's not something I'm interested in watching a sci-fi flick. Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't terrible by any means, for example it doesn't approach "First Spaceship on Venus" territory. But when you have a film that conjures up an image of destruction on a massive scale it ought to deliver something along those lines. If only the script had used the word 'azimuth' in any of the scientific calculations coming out of the differential analyzer, I could have thrown in a bonus point in my rating of the picture. Instead, Dr. Tony Drake (Peter Hansen) had this weird patch of brown in the back of his otherwise full head of black hair. Never mind, those two items cross each other out.