Classic Movie Review: Things to Come (1936)

Things to Come (1936) 

Directed by: William Cameron Menzies.

Written by: H.G. Wells based on his novel.

Starring: Raymond Massey (John Cabal / Oswald Cabal), Edward Chapman (Pippa Passworthy / Raymond Passworthy), Ralph Richardson (The Boss), Margaretta Scott (Roxana / Rowena), Cedric Hardwicke (Theotocopulos), Maurice Braddell (Dr. Harding), Sophie Stewart (Mrs. Cabal), Derrick De Marney (Richard Gordon), Ann Todd (Mary Gordon), Pearl Argyle (Catherine Cabal), Kenneth Villiers (Maurice Passworthy), Ivan Brandt (Morden Mitani), Anne McLaren (The Child), Patricia Hilliard (Janet Gordon), Charles Carson (Great Grandfather).

 

It’s always interesting to watch films from the past, that try and project what the future was going to look like from the vantage point of the future, when we now know. The 1936 film, Things to Come, adapted by H.G. Wells from his own novel, and directed by William Cameron Menzies, who has more credits as an Art Director than a directed, and produced by Alexander Korda is one of those remnants from the past. It is a compromised vision of the future – and progress, and what would slow it all down, or speed it up into utopia. It’s odd for instance that religion, racism, misogyny, etc. is never really brought up – instead focusing on the march of progress, and those who wish that things would simply remain the same.

 

The films opens in the not too distant future of 1940 – in a city called Everytown (although it looks a lot like London). The British are on the eve of WWII, so while it is Christmas, and everything appears merry and bright, there is an undercurrent of war in the background. John Cabal (Raymond Massey) thinks that war is inevitable, Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman) thinks that humanity has learned its lesson from the last Great War – and one will not be coming. He is wrong, and the world plunges into a decades long war. Flash forward to the 1960s, and the Great War is over, but progress has ground to a halt. Things in Everytown are now run by The Boss (Ralph Richardson), a petty man, addicted to his own power, who wants to keep things as they are – even though that means not moving forward, and the walking sickness (zombies, essentially) keeps going, etc. It’s not quite Mad Max-level post apocalypse – but it’s not that far off either. And then they are invaded by the sky people – a society in which technology has advanced, and promises a new, brighter future. Flash forward again – this time to sometime in the 2000s, and we basically have an antiseptic utopia. Man is about to go the moon for the first time – although there is a growing faction who wants to grind progress to a halt, who simply want to live without all this pushing towards tomorrow. Once again, a Cabal and a Passworthy (played by the same actors) are at the heart of this debate – although their children, who volunteer to be the ones who go to the moon, basically solve this for them.

 

Watching Things to Come now is interesting – obviously, Wells didn’t get everything right (WWII happened, of course – but it didn’t last decades, we made it to the moon decades before he thought we would, etc.). But more than that, it’s perhaps easier to see the faults in his Utopia of the 2000s than Wells did. It looks a lot like an environmentally desiccated world – something never touched on in the film. It also seems completely undemocratic – a world in which our benevolent overlords will just treat us all well, as we push towards progresses, and we should accept it – or else, we’re just like the frightened luddites trying to stop progress (Cabal is so convinced that humanity needs to keep pushing forward – correct – that he never questions at what cost all this progresses comes at).

 

From a visual point-of-view Things to Come is quite an accomplishment – a visual representation of the future with stunning art direction that will bring to mind Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) – and perhaps little else from that time. Producer Korda clearly brought on director Menzies for this purpose- and it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deliver. Menzies is clearly less interested in anything else – he allows the long speeches in Wells’ screenplay to drag on and on at times – the actors making a meal out of each one of them, because that is what they’ll do absent any other direction.

 

Things to Come then is clearly a flawed film. It ignores too much of what really would hinder progress in the rest of the 20^th Century, which is a major flaw (apparently, Wells did want to take on religion – he even published a copy of his original screenplay when the film came out so people would know this) – but Korda wanted to ignore it. It is a flaw – as are all those speeches. And yet, it remains a fascinating document of the past – looking towards an uncertain future.