Enjoyable, Dramatic and a Product of its time

Right from the start of this film , it is clearly a drama based on a Biblical Allegory. It is also a product of its time, and taking these things into account, some of the comments are pretty unnecessary in the other reviews.It is rather inappropriate, I would suggest, to judge a fairly good film of its time, by current FX and film standards.
For myself, it was a treat to See "Dr Bellows" in an earlier role to his hit TV series of 15 years later.
The drama of the film is quite enjoyable, and whilst the audio is not the best, and if they wanted to, this could have been fixed.
Watch it for what it is, a good film, enjoyable fare, and an insight to the period, if you want to go that far. Otherwise, just watch a good film for its entertainment value.

Vintage, First Class Science Fiction

This is probably my favorite of the classic science fiction movies from the 50s. The "science" is laughable but the story is a good one even if it is very dated.

Astronomers learn of a star heading towards the solar system. It is on a collision course with earth and the earth will be destroyed. At first, nobody believes the predictions except for a few true believers and a nasty billionaire who is very protective of his own skin. The true believes conceive of a plan to build a space ship to take a few individuals to the planet of the incoming star and save a remnant of humanity.

As the star gets closer, more and more people come to realize that the doomsayers were right all along. The earth is doomed and only a very few can be saved. Those that will be saved are chosen by lottery from those who worked on the escape ship.

Its no secret: the earth is destroyed. Very few get away.

The strong points of this film are the moral and physical courage shown by the characters. There are a few scoundrels but this piece dates from the day and age when virtue is rewarded and deceit is punished. Although the situations can be hokey and the effects are laughable by today's standards, the film has a charm all its own. It is first rate.

Delightfully cheesy 1950s SF

It's the end of the world, 1950s style. A whirling pair of planets descend on poor little earth from deep space. One has a trajectory that will mash the world like an egg dropped on concrete. The other, however, appears capable of supporting life, so off we go. Valiant scientists and derring-doers are off to save the day, and even a venal financier is bullied into doing the right thing to save the human species. Then, they're off in their shiny rocket with big fins, and the requisite happy ending ensues.

This is a 1950s artifact, though. That was a nice-looking little planet that just showed up, ready to move into, with everything but the white picket fences - not what I would have expected after a few eons near absolute zero in interstellar space. A character in a wheelchair had to fit some stereotype, either the tear-jerker or the guy with a moral sense as broken as his body - the latter stereotype was used here. The human race is saved, but with a strikingly low percentage (zero?) of brown and black faces on Noah's new ark. Well, maybe not the whole human race was being saved, just the parts that mattered back then.

The original book had a lot more to say about how the world would behave, when most people knew that there was no tomorrow in which they'd be call to account for their actions today. The movie sensibility of the 1950s could not tolerate so dark a view of the human spirit. After the serious part of the book was scraped off, only a popcorn movie was left.

So be it. Pop that corn and enjoy it.

//wiredwerid