World Without End (1956)

In 1957, four astronauts are returning to Earth from mankind's first mission to Mars. They are hit by some cosmic event and land on a strange planet. They are attacked by giant spiders and mutant humanoids. They find a human grave with an end date of 2068. They surmise that they have traveled through time to an Earth of the future. They stumble upon an underground civilization.This is standard 50s sci-fi borrowing from Verne and Wells. The look and the premise are undeniable B-movie sci-fi. It would be nice to have some cool twist but that's not to be. It's all rather old fashion.

Spoiler alert, there are plot revelations exposed here!! There is much about this movie that has been well described by other reviewers. I will just add my take on the script from an intentional & sociological viewpoint. Getting past the bad spider scenes (Eight-legged Freaks is truly years ahead of WWE's predators) & the interesting space ship, this movie is about mankind. I saw Earth vs the Flying Saucers when I was a kid & comprehended only mechanical ships, not the human logic & relationships also portrayed (though I did understand what I saw in what I value as the greatest of the older, as well as, some more modern Sci-Fi films, Forbidden Planet). As in F.P., World Without End looks at the ethical challenges that help mankind grow. 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. Due to defensive isolation, humankind has wilted into a society of wimps. Humanity will end with a sniffle or sigh if the robust pioneering spirit & seeking of a better (not necessarily a more materialistic) life of humans is not rekindled. There is some balance between the space team & the futuristic earth group, led by Everett Glass as Timmek. Although the isolated lifestyle & concentrated interaction of the futuristic council leads to errors in judging their ancestors from the past, the 4 astronauts are patient & graceful toward the underground group, & lucky due to Deena's honest intervention, until they finally are given the opportunity to rebuild society. This film has more to offer in reviewing our own present situation of life. Our politically correct culture will be the death of us if we do not boldly pursue our own origins & purpose...until the end.

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.

Arresting Allied Artists adventure borne out of the ashes of Monogram Pictures, a Poverty Row stalwart better known for its economical Westerns and Bowery Boys' sagas, than for its epics made on a high budget or shot in a widescreen process. 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. And somewhere between those two points of interest, their rocket ship slips through a rip in the fabric of time, slinging them hundreds of years into the future. Back on the post-radioactive world they once knew very well, the spacemen find themselves battling hairy, one-eyed mutants who reside in high-rise caves. In another cave, earthbound, they encounter a race of people, untouched by radiation, living in an advanced underground society. 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. In fact, the head of the tunnel dwellers is aptly named "Timmek." The lead female role is authored by the very healthy and overheated Nancy Gates. She is called "Garnet"--a precious red gem--and falls instantly for the older Commander Marlowe. In one scene, she offers to take him to an "old tunnel" exit, where they can gaze at the moon from a protected cliff. It's a sweet, sexy scene played out by a modern man and a post-modern woman. After he kisses her in the moonlight, she returns the gesture with a heavy dose of feminine gusto. She rocks. He then rebuffs her feelings of love and thoughts of marriage. What was he thinking? Everything is resolved by the final fade-out. Marlowe dispatches the mutant chief to The Happy Hunting Grounds, somewhere in the heavens, with an assist from the old peacemaker: the bazooka. Can a fresh batch of little ones be far behind?