World Without End

Plot synopsis:
We see an atomic explosion as the opening credits begin.A group of military servicemen huddle around a radio trying to reestablish contact with rocket ship XRM. At the Pentagon, concern grows over the lack of contact. The last message from the ship was cut off mid in mid sentence, which many point to as a sign a disaster has occurred. A newscaster describes how man's first flight into space seems to have ended in disaster and grave fears are held for Doctor Eldon Galbraithe and his crew. The last message was received as the ship entered Mars orbit and nothing has been heard since.We cut to a scene of a rocket approaching Mars. The radio operator Herb Ellis (Rod Taylor) reports to Dr. Galbraithe (Nelson Leigh) that contact with Earth is lost. He is sure it is not the equipment because the signal was lost as the ship entered Mars' magnetic field. Galbraithe asks John Borden (Hugh Marlowe) to check the viewer. Across the landscape are strange green surface markings, but from orbit they can't make out what the markings are.Dr. Galbraithe gives Henry Jaffe (Christopher Dark) orders to lay in a course back to Earth. Their mission was only a recon mission; simply do a couple of orbits of the planet then head back for Earth with their findings. As the ship breaks Mars orbit, it runs into a strange time dilation effect that accelerates the ship unbelievably. Before the crew can try to slow the ship down they are pinned to the deck by the incredible G force.They wake to find they have landed high up on snow covered mountains. They think they are on Mars, specifically one of the poles. However Bordon realizes that something is not right. The gravity feels too strong and he suspects there is an atmosphere outside. They take a chance the crack the hatch to see what's going on.Checking the ship they find the control surfaces have been damaged, also the radiation count is about three times higher than would be expected on Earth. Herb tries the radio and is unable to make any contact or find any evidence any radio broadcasts even exist.The team decides to hike down below the snowline and investigate the rest of the area. Herb quips that if they're on Venus, they may run into some high domed types that might kill them with ray guns. To try and stop that we only have good old revolvers.During a rest period one of the crew finds a cave and decides to explore it. As they go deeper they discover spider webs. As they ponder what may have spun it, Herb is attacked by a giant spider. As they fight the creature off with gun fire, a second spider attacks.After marching most of the day they decide to make camp. While sleeping, they are ambushed by a band of caveman type creatures. The party survives the initial attack and drives the attackers off. One of the creatures was killed and when the corpse is inspected it appears to be a Cyclops.At first light the party moves off again working their way further down the mountain. They encounter the ruins of what appears to be a graveyard, and looking at the tombs they realize they are on Earth, and from the dates, they can see some period in the future.Galbraithe explains there is a theory that if you can move fast enough you can affect time, and actually move backwards through it. Bordon wonders if the instruments failed at 100 miles per second, but they may have been travelling many times faster. They also are unable to decide how long they were actually blacked out.They work their way around the cemetery trying to discover the oldest gravestone. They do find a number marked 2188, and even these look old. Galbraithe considers whatever happened, he presumes a nuclear war given the high background radiation, and it would take at least a couple of hundred years for things to become livable again.They work their way along a valley and see a mountain range in the distance. It is decided they must be the Rockies (In Western USA) and judging from the environment and weather they may be either in Colorado or New Mexico.In the distance they see a thin column of smoke; Borden decides it is not a brush fire and might have been set by somebody. He decides to go and investigate but is attacked by another group of the mutated humans. The rest of the party rescues Borden and withdraws as they realize the mutants are getting behind them. They take shelter in a cave to regroup and decide their next course of action.Borden recovers from the attack being little more than a little shaken up. The party can't decide if they are trapped or found a place of safety. While exploring the cave they find a stainless steel barrier blocking access to the rest of the tunnel. Suddenly a second barrier slides into place and the first barrier opens. Short of any real options they decide to explore what's behind the barrier.They follow a long tunnel of advance design until they encounter a room. A disembodied voice speaks to them and instructs them to leave all their weapons and packs behind and enter into another tunnel. There they are greeted by a human dressed in futuristic clothes. The room is set up like some form of court or council meeting area.Timmek (Everett Glass) introduces himself and explains it was his voice the party heard. Timmek queries why they are here. Borden explains they took refuge in the tunnel, and that they had flown to Mars in 1957. Timmek explains they encountered a time dilation effect. And since they had been away, civilization had encountered the great blow. Timmek explains it was an Armageddon atomic war. Timmek is unaware of any other surviving elements of civilization.Other members of Timmek's group begin querying the men on their intentions, especially why they feel the need to have weapons. Borden has no specific response to this and the council decides to keep the guns from the men.Garnet (Nancy Gates) Timmek's daughter appears and reminds her father the men must be both tired and hungry. Galbraithe asks about what year it must be, Timmek tells him it is 2508AD. Stunned the men follow Garnet and are fed a wide variety of food.Garnet explains that all their food is produced underground due to the high radiation counts. She then introduces Elaine (Shirley Patterson) she is Elda's Stanley Fraser) assistant and makes an offer to show the crew anything they would want to see. Galbraithe wonders why the people have not conquered the surface. Garnet explains the people are tired of war and have generations of tradition behind them.As the conversation peters out Galbraithe notices one of the servant girls Deena (Lisa Montell) and asks about her. Garnet explains she is from the surface; shes been saved when she was rejected by the beasts (deformed humans) on the surface.The four men decide to bunk down for the night, Jaffe asks Borden if these people may have learned how to reverse the time dilation effect they suffered. Borden thinks probably not. He thinks that those who survived the war, turned their technology inwards, only applying what they needed to survive. Borden thinks these people will be ultimately useless to their needs.They are gutless and not willing to get out of their holesNext morning Elaine arrives to take Galbraithe to meet the chief science councilmen. At the meeting he explains he wants to repair the ship so he can explore the rest of Earth, find out if there other surviving colonies. The council rejects the idea. They have no weapons or desire to fight the beasts to retrieve the shipLater Garnet comes across Borden alone in his quarters; he asks if she would mind showing him the sites. She reacts be saying she'd hoped he would ask. In another part of the colony a science worker explains to Jaffe where their power and food come from. The science worker slips and mentions the colony is getting smaller and the drain on resources is becoming less and lessBorden and Garnet discuss the sadness surrounding Jaffe, how he left a family behind, and what sort of courage did it take to fly in the first place. Mories (Booth Colman) interrupts the conversation and Borden sense a bit of jealousy from the man. Garnet explains he will probably succeed her father as leader of the council, and as such took it for granted Garnet would be his partner.Back at their quarters Herbert tries to apologize to Deena for a previous comment but she refuses to hear him. Borden and Galbraithe return from their respective meetings and agree the people underground have lost their will, their desire to push frontiers. He then admits he has a date with Garnet, and when the others tease him about it he explains Garnet is going to show him a tunnel that leads back to the surface.Garnet takes Borden to the tunnel and they go outside. Garnet is surprised at the beauty of the Moon; it is not how the books describe it. Borden grabs garnet and kisses her. She declares he love for him. Hes concerned by this emotion and says that at some stage he will have to leave. Garnet begs him to stay and make his life with the colony.Again at their quarters the men try to communicate with Deena. Borden explains they are trying to help her people. Finally she breaks down and accepts Herberts apology. Jaffe and Galbraithe return from another meeting with the council. Jaffe explains the colony seems to be in real trouble. He visited a hospital and found only 14 children out of a population of 2000. Jaffe doesnt think they have more than more generation.Unknown to the men, they are being spied on by Mories, who becomes unsettled over Bordens plans for Garnet. Mories goes to the council twists the story of their intention. Mories convinces the council to ignore their requestsBack at the quarters Deena tells the rest of her story. Most of the normal children were not driven away by the beasts but actually put to work by them. At the end of the conversation Herb comes in and Deena admits her interest in himAt the council meeting Galbraithe pleads his case to allow them men to expand to the surface and have invited those in the colony who want to be part of the expansion. Mories pleads the counter case that the men are going to enslave everyone in the colony and carries the day and the council votes down the proposal.That night Mories steals the mens weapons accidentally killing one of the councilmen in the process. He then hides the gun in the men's quarters and rushes of to tell the council the men stole their weapons. Deena sees him, and tries to retrieve the guns.Deena sees Herb kissing another woman and becomes jealous and distressed. Mories reaches the council and realizes the dead councilman has already been found. The council go to their quarters and discover the guns and
Timmek orders the arrest of the men.Deena stands back and says nothing of what she saw. At the council chamber the men a presumed guilty, they are going to be banished from the city, taking only what they came with.Deena realizes what this means and goes to Timmek. As she waits to see him Mories attacks and tries to kill her, unsuccessful he escapes into the tunnels as she reveals what had occurred. They follow him to the outside world in time to see him killed by the beasts.Sometime later the council apologizes for their actions. 20 or so men have volunteered to go out to with the crew. They need to resolve the issue of weapons. Deena tells them only the ugly beasts fight and there is not as many of them as people thingThe crew decides a primitive form of bazooka will be the best way to kill those on the surface. Deena tells them that the beasts follow a leader, who is selected for his ability to fight off any rivals. She believes if they kill him, the rest could fall into line pretty fast.The four men go outside to test the weapons. They fire at a pass that looks set up like an ambush, they fire around into the area and the beasts run away in confusion. One of them not mutated like the others is captured and taken back to be questioned.The captured enemy tells Deena that the leader of the beasts will probably take his people back to the caves to make it harder for the humans to attack them. On the way they find another normal surface dweller speared by his own people.They find the possible hiding place of the beasts and Jaffe scouts ahead but is speared by the beasts. Herb recovers him before fighting off the creatures. The leader of the beasts warns he has killed many of her people and he will kill all of them if need be. Borden sends Deena up with a message that he is a coward and Borden wants to fight the leader one on one using only an axe and knifeThe leader takes up the challenge and comes out. After a frantic few minutes of fighting, Borden kills the leader. Borden declares himself the chief of the tribe and calls the other beasts to acknowledge him as the new leaderMonths later, progress above ground is going well. Most of the colony is moving to live on the surface and the former tribe of the beasts is being integrated with the colony. Everyone agrees they are witnessing the rebirth of man's civilization.Chapman_glen@yahoo.com

Tags: murder

Review:
The wonderful screenplay, rather strong acting [HUGH MARLOWE, ROD TAYLOR, etc.], Color-Cinemascope production, and a fair amount of actual outside location shooting [no cheap soundstaging] combined to make this an absolutely wonderful film [still ranks as one of my favorite 50's Sc-Fi-Flix today!].
Here four astronauts who return from a mission to Mars are caught in the usual 'time warp'; and so they return to find a devastated Earth of the future--atomic war being the destructive force.
The astronauts are led by dependable leading man Hugh Marlowe; the others are young Rod Taylor, Christopher Dark and announcer--voiced nice guy Nelson Leigh.
I recently watched this movie for the first time and found it a cross between Planet of the Apes and The Time Machine, complete with Rod Taylor.Four astronauts returning from a space mission go through a time warp and end up on earth thousands of years into the future after a nuclear war.
Two of the astronauts fall in love with two of the local women.As well as The Time Machine's Rod Taylor, the film also stars Hugh Marlowe (The Day The Earth Stood Still) and Nancy Gates.
Hitting a great turbulence, the ship crash lands on an unknown planet, and the crew meets with many adventures before they discover that they are are on earth in the far future,  and they deduce that an atomic war has taken place a couple of centuries prior to their landing.The film has a good plot, cast and script, and even if the special effects are not what we are capable of today, it still is a movie that is worthwhile seeing.Like I said before, I still enjoy it even after thirty years..
It was great to see `The Time Machine' star Rod Taylor with `The Day the Earth Stood Still' star Hugh Marlow.
Folks so quickly forget what pre-2001 A Space Odyssey and pre-Star Wars SCI-FI movies were like and become jaded in their views.
WORLD WITHOUT END offers a story taking off from the classic Time Machine and anticipating the post-apocalyptic nightmare of Planet of the Apes.
This is an another one of those films I first saw on TV as kid and still recall with fondness and enjoy re-watching on video every now and then.The story of accidental time travel via space ship appealed to me.
Although the idea of time travel was novel to films when it was first released in 1956, the story is obviously derived from the HG Wells novel "The Time Machine." The fact that the time travel is accidental instead of deliberate via a time machine, the mutants live above ground instead of below it and the normal people live underground instead on the surface didn't fool me when I was ten years when I first saw this film on TV.(I had already seen the George Pal version of THE TIME MACHINE and read the "Classics Illustrated" version of the novel.) Neither did it fool the estate of HG Wells, who filed a plagiarism suit against Allied Artists when this film was first released.
They are a gaudy blue and red color and look like pillows.Despite the films faults, one should give credit to minor league studio Allied Artists, whom most of their previous science fiction films (and most those that came later) were low budget black and white quickies designed to fill the bottom half of a double bill, attempt to make something that would compete with the bigger budgeted science fiction movies being made by the big studios.
Four astros headed for Mars go through a time warp in space and end up on Earth after atomic Armaggedon has decimated the planet.
Because the story is actually interesting (the sun-deprived humans are dying out and the astros try to convince them to return to the planet's now-decontaminated surface), it's easy to forgive the theatrical photography, cardboard sets, and the three '50s-type females in their restaurant hostess outfits and bouffant hairdos.
I pretty much thought I'd seen just about all the sci-fi films of the 1950s and I was happily surprised when I discovered "World Without End" today.
What's to come of this?While a bit of the acting is occasionally a bit suspect and the mutants look a bit silly, for a 50s sci-fi film it's actually exceptionally good--with special effects and production values far ahead of its peers.
Twelve years before `Planet of the Apes', this nifty sci-fi adventure presented a spacecraft that travels forward in time and returns to Earth in the distant future.
Four years before `The Time Machine', this film proposed a post-holocaust world in which mankind is divided into barbaric mutants and utopian `normal' people.
World Without End has four astronauts on a Mars mission enter a time warp similar to what Charlton Heston and his crew encountered in Planet Of The Apes.
Only they figure out before the end that it is earth about 500 years into the future where an atomic war has pretty well decimated the planet.
But they're a pretty pacific lot and frown on these 20th century types with their weaponry which simply consists of handguns.The four astronauts are Hugh Marlowe, Nelson Leigh, Christopher Dark, and Rod Taylor who would soon star in his own film about time travel.
In the end it turns out that these guys and their knowledge of weapons come in pretty useful after all.The director of this film Edward Bernds who did this for Allied Artists.
This was a man used to working with minuscule budgets and realizing that the film didn't turn out half bad.And unlike Planet Of The Apes it ends on a somewhat optimistic note..
This outer space tale-of-woe begins with a quartet of explorers--led by Rod Taylor and Hugh Marlowe--returning to Earth from a lengthy jaunt to the Red Planet Mars.
A cut above most films of this ilk, World Without End (a superb title) showcases the traditional mix, for that time, of vibrant, mini-skirted females and timid, cowardly males.
I've been struggling to write a plot synopsis of World Without End and finally decided to take a look at what was posted on IMDb. The posted synopsis from D.A. Kellough is much better than anything I've been able to come up with - "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 mutant cavemen, 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." That sums it all up rather nicely.At first glance, World Without End might seem like any number of the mass produced sci-fi clones that came out in the 50s.
Even the more romantic, schmaltzy scenes don't drag the film down like in other sci-fi movies of the period.
Its a very good story and stars a pre-TIME MACHINE Rod Taylor and also another 50's SCI FI star, Hugh Marlowe.
This is a film that though the special effects were so-so always was fun to watch and a great way to step back to a simplier time.
Still with Rod Taylor burgeoning to break out of his scripted shell, the movie displays an entertaining view of future film 'planet of the Apes.' Within the movie itself, there is the addition of much Eye-Candy galore which alone keep in tradition with the 1950's.
Just watched one of my childhood favorites; a film that remains on my personal Top 100 List to this day, the great sci-fi film "World Without End" (1956).
In "World Without End," two of the astronauts are played by Hugh Marlowe and Rod Taylor, the latter of whom would go on to star in the film version of "The Time Machine" four years later, of course.
This film was directed by the great Edward Bernds, who had previously directed so many Three Stooges shorts and would go on to direct yet another sci-fi cult classic of the '50s, "Queen of Outer Space," with which "World Without End" shares some common elements (that humongous, phony-looking spider, for one thing!).
Plus all of the men left on the planet are pacifist wimps, so the ladies are in desperate need of some Vitamin "D," if you catch my drift.Fun Technicolor sci-fi movie, filmed in CinemaScope, from the golden age of science fiction.
As others have stated, there are some plot similarities to sci-fi classic "The Time Machine." Coincidentally one of the astronauts here, Rod Taylor, would go on to star in the definitive film version of that story.
The lovely ladies of future Earth are well-represented by Nancy Gates and Lisa Montell, among others.Love the great old sets, costumes, and special effects.
A returning spaceship crew of four astronauts(including Rod Taylor & Hugh Marlowe) find themselves sent through a time-warp into the 26th century, where an atomic war has taken place, resulting in a primitive tribe of men on the surface, and a society of intelligent(but tyrannical) people living below.
This must be the dumbest 1950's sci-fi movie ever.It starts of fine, (like an early version of Planet of the Apes)only instead of apes we get a race of "mutates" on the surface of the earth and a small group of "regular humans" who have built a society underground(A lot of similarities with the Timemachine).Our 4 heroes end up in a cave and are taken in by the regular humans,finding out that after a big nuclear war the surface dwellers were mutated into hideous,violent,Cycloptic Neanderthal-like "mutates" due to radiation,and a group of humans went underground.These underground dwellers degenerated into spineless peace loving hippie treehuggers with no stomach for violence whatsoever (which seems logical considering the earth was decimated by nuclear war) Our 4 heroes however disagree with this peaceful society and take it upon themselves to lead the treehuggers back to the surface where humans belong,and propose to create weapons to take the surface back,because the underground society will go extinct due to the oh so obvious inbreeding.Now i am not sure about the morale of this tale but i'm sure American 2nd amendment lovers should adopt this movie..
Many of the best 50's sci-fi's didn't try to create eye-catching alternate worlds, the kind that consumes a lot of budget that could otherwise go into good casts and story lines.
'Planet of the Apes' Meets 'The Time Machine' Just to clarify this film was made years before 'Planet of the Apes' so it's not a rip off as some have claimed.'World Without End' is a truly great film.
We really care about the characters and the story is original and keeps us on the edge of our seats.I cannot reveal too much of the plot without revealing The plot: In 1957 four astronauts (dressed like WWII fighter pilots) travel at the speed of light and crash on a mysterious planet.After dueling with giant spiders and cave men they realize they're actually on earth 550 years in the future.By coincidence they wander into a cave where the last vestiges of civilized man have been hold up since the nuclear holocaust.
It is very interesting how many elements were clearly the inspiration for the later sci-fi giants 'Planet of the Apes' and 'The Time Machine.'.
Hugh Marlowe and stud wannabe Rod T play 2 of the low budget astronauts, trying to survive a world where people live in caves, the women are babes and the men: pathetic old fuds in terrible outfits....
It starred Rod Taylor, who subsequently had great success with "The Time Machine" in 1960, which I remember very well and have a copy of.I find it intriguing watching this oldie for its simplicity, even a little corny, but gave me much pleasure in taking me back to this era of movie making.
The more I think about this movie the more I realize that it's kind of "The Time Machine" with a bit of a space travel twist to it - and one of the stars is actually Rod Taylor, who also starred in the definitive movie version of "The Time Machine." It also had Hugh Marlowe, who did a few sci-fi movies in the era, along with westerns and a fair bit of TV work in his later career.
This movie gives us four astronauts who somehow on a trip home from Mars (and this is set in 1957) end up being hurtled forward in time and land back on Earth about 500 years in the future.
So, as with many sci-fi pictures of this era, we do get mutants - silly looking giant spiders, and cyclopean looking humans on the surface who seem interested in little but attacking whatever they find.
The beautiful women, of course, are quite taken with the handsome muscular men from the past - we're told that even in the 26th century when they haven't seen anything except this rather pathetic collection of the male of the species women can't resist men with "good shoulders." The girls fall in love, jealousy erupts among the underground men, and eventually the men of the past - apparently having accepted that they can't return home - try to "un-wimp" this society and get them back to the surface - where humans belong!It's a pretty quick movie.
Like it is in "The Time Machine," our future is populated underground with weak-kneed pacifists and a race of cave men have evolved on the surface.
The most notable cast members are Hugh Marlowe (who appeared in a handful of titles in this vein) and Rod Taylor (later star of the similar but obviously more prestigious THE TIME MACHINE [1960]); typically, the world of the 26th century has been decimated by radioactivity, with the population divided between learned pacifists living underground and deformed savages roaming above.
In some ways, it seems that this movie is a precursor to "Planet of the Apes", as the stranded astronauts come to realize that they had been on Earth the whole time.
Stalwart John Borden (solid Hugh Marlowe), wise Dr. Eldon Galbraithe (a fine Nelson Leigh), hearty, rugged Herbert Ellis (an affable turn by a really young Rod Taylor), and fidgety navigator Henry "Hank" Jaffe (nicely played by Christopher Dark) are a quartet of astronauts who are returning from a mission to Mars back to Earth.
I'd like to say here, that all these under thirty reviewers who put down the old films of their parent's and grandparent's times, are not clued in to the fact that WE(Over 40's) CREATED the ENTIRE WORLD they live in!
Although there seems to be no religious inferences in this film, versus some of the other 50's & 60s sci-fi pieces, (Them or Day the World Ended, for example) the title has a Biblical ring which may resonant with some.The space team of Marlowe, Leigh, Dark & Taylor grasp the problem of the underground society rather quickly.
This sci-fi film tells the story of a Mars mission (led by Marlowe) which somehow is stuck in a time warp and arrives on Earth of the far future.
Future Earth people are living underground like scared rabbits, since savage "mutates" rule the surface and kill all humans that venture out.
The leader of the mutates is killed, and the mutates and humans are shown living in harmony at the end of the film.The entire cast is good, but Leigh (in his usual dignified way), and a very young Rod Taylor stand out, along with Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson, as one of the future humans).
So down it goes to 6 stars.Some of the SFX in the early part of the movie are poor enough to make a modern day fan of this genre wince (think Rocky Jones "Crash Of Moons" poor), but once the movie gets out of outer space and once you get past the ludicrous spider puppets, things look a lot better and you can start concentrating on what's good about the movie instead of what's painful about it.Yes, the screenplay has more than a little resemblance to "The Time Machine", and some of the "underground scenes" and future costumes are undistinguished, but the actors manage to save it.
***SPOILERS*** Top of the line Allied Artists motion picture in both Technicolor and Wide Screen, reserved for the biggest blockbusters of major films studios back in the 1950's, has a quartet of US astronauts end up getting caught in a time warp.
It's after being attacked by giant spiders as well as mutant and for the most part one eyed cave men that they get the picture, in escaping into an underground cave complex, that the place or planet their on is the good old earth itself!Taken in by the few humans still left on the planet the fly or space boys learn that a nuclear war had broken out in the 22th century and destroyed almost the entire human race.
It's when the astronauts get a look at the women in the cave who all look like their in their early 20's who just stepped out of a 1950's girlie magazine that they changed their minds about coming back to 20th century earth if that's at all possible.
There's also Aussie actor Rod Taylor who some four years later would again travel into the future in the movie "The Time Machine" desperately trying to hide his very pronounced Australian accent, and sound American, but being totally unable to do it!.
On the return trip, they're caused to break the time barrier, and they end up back on Earth - five centuries later.
They try to encourage these people to take action and take control of their lives."World Without End" was conceived by director Edward Bernds ("Queen of Outer Space", "Return of the Fly"), and it's a solidly entertaining story if not a great one.
It's likely going to remind people of other, more well known tales such as "The Time Machine" and "Planet of the Apes".