Discuss Things to Come

Before filming started, author H.G. Wells told everyone connected with the movie how much he'd hated Fritz Lang's film Metropolis (1927) and how he wanted them to do the opposite of what Lang (whom he called "Lange") and his crew had done.

The date on the newspaper in the scene in 1966 when the war ends is 21st September 1966 - which would have been the 100th birthday of H.G. Wells.

It was reported that H.G. Wells, the author of the novel the film is based on, actually began directing the film, but his inexperience resulted in director William Cameron Menzies taking over.

Accurately predicts the scale and usage of large-format, flat-screen jumbo-tron style LCD TV screens.

The Image Entertainment DVD promises a 97 minute version "restored from the original 35mm masters." The version on the disc runs only 92 minutes, shorter than some VHS versions, but has better print quality than most previous releases.

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

At the time of its 1947 USA re-release, this film was most frequently shown on the top half of a double bill, with The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), which was likewise based on a novel by H.G. Wells and starred Ralph Richardson, on the lower half of the program.

The film takes place in 1940, 1966, 1970 and 2036.

The part of Theotocopulos was originally filmed with Ernest Thesiger in the role. The scenes were re-shot with Sir Cedric Hardwicke because the producers wanted a better-known actor with more "marquee value".

Soon after the film's premiere, a special screening of the film was held in Washington D.C. for U.S. government officials. H.G. Wells addressed the audience from Great Britain via a transatlantic telephone.

According to an article published in Variety, this was the first million-dollar picture produced in England. The budget for the film was close to 300,000 British pounds, but with an approximate exchange rate of 5 US dollars for every 1 British pound at the time, the budget easily exceeded the million-dollar mark.

The futuristic costumes worn by citizens of Everytown in 2036, and particularly the rigid shoulder extensions, were patterned after the kata-ginu (shoulder cloth) of Japanese samurai.

A number of film critics in the United States criticized H.G. Wells's screen adaptation of his book for its failure to adequately address class struggle. The complaint rang with a tone of irony for Wells, whose book had been criticized by literary critics for containing too much of the author's analysis of class struggle and his socialist-leaning political beliefs.

Music recorded at The Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street, London, England UK, which was also where the final performance of the Beatles in the film "A Hard Day's Night" was shot.

This film was included in the first syndicated television presentation of a package of major studio feature films on USA television; it premiered on WPIX, New York City, Monday, December 13, 1948. The package consisted of 24 Alexander Korda productions originally released theatrically between 1933 and 1942.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Ralph Richardson has said that he intentionally modeled his character, the despotic boss of Everytown, after the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

Film historians consider this to be one of Great Britain's first major science fiction films.

In general, the film was extremely well received by British critics. At the box office, however, the film was a disaster, failing to garner a large audience after its profitable first week in cinemas.

The film drew huge audiences upon its opening in New York City. Advertisements for the film mentioned that large crowds continually flocked to New York's Rivoli Theatre from 9:30am on opening day until the ad went to press four days later. The initial interest in the film apparently wore off, as the film earned significantly less at the box office than the studio had expected.

Despite H.G. Wells's dislike of Fritz Lang and his landmark film, Metropolis (1927), and Wells's request that William Cameron Menzies avoid patterning his film after Metropolis, Menzies nonetheless drew a great deal of inspiration from the film. Menzies admitted that the lengthy montage depicting the transition of the war-torn nineteenth-century Everytown to the progressive and rational futuristic city, in particular, owed a huge debt to Metropolis.

Perhaps ignoring the "fiction" part of this science fiction film, scientific contemporaries criticized the film on scientific and technical grounds. The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society insisted that the space travel depicted in the film was unfeasible, as the "space gun" used to launch the two citizens into space would require greater force than the human body could sustain.

As pointed out in the DVD commentary, in the scene where Passworthy tells his son to "do his bit", the foliage on the wall in the background forms a vague image of the face of Adolf Hitler.

2 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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Thanks for the trivia, lantzn:)

One thing-- you mentioned the DVD Image release. Around the time Image released it, I purchased a copy, and I do believe it was probably the best version available at the time. Much better picture quality than TV releases or previously-available VHS copies.

However, Criterion did release a Blu-ray edition not long ago, with additional footage bringing the runtime up to 97 minutes, and much improved picture and sound quality.

You might want to check it out if you haven't already.

Oh, and the additional footage is not just "more montage" (which I thought it would be, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't).

There is a previously missing scene of the Chief, along with the lovely Margaretta Scott, hosting a dinner for distinguished members of the Chief's little fiefdom.

Thanks for the update, good to know! I have been adding these trivia posts using borrowed information from that other movie database site so I'm sure some is outdated. As people, like yourself respond, I will update it here.

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