Just Imagine (1930)

This movie is one of the most unique films of the early talkie era. It seems to cross the boundaries of every genre of film. A science-fiction-musical-romantic comedy for the ages. There are fantastic settings and ideas put forth in this. This film cost over one million dollars to make in 1930 dollars. Some of the humor is surprisingly frank for the time. Best line in the film comes when El Brendel meets first the queen of Mars and then her male second in command. After the latter flirts with him, El Brendel says: "She's not the queen, he is!" There are several musical numbers, most notably a strange modernistic dance on Mars with writhing dancing girls in the arms of a giant idol. Some of this footage along with the space ship used wound up in the "Flash Gordon" serials from Universal which came out a few years later. Once you've seen this amazing film, you won't forget it.

This film is supposed to be what life will be like in the distant future of 1980! And, amazingly enough, they got almost nothing right--sort of like "The Jetsons" portrays the future--but even worse! Because of this and the very, very strange musical numbers, it's probably the weirdest film I've seen in years--and I've seen a ton of films! In this future, everyone flies about in airplanes instead of cars (sort of like Jetson's vehicles) and there are traffic cops directing people in their own private hover planes. People are numbers and letters--names are no more. Marriages are only allowed by the government and they decide who you marry--in other words, a eugenics program to weed out the "undesirables". Everyone uses videophones. And, people eat and drink in pill form. Oddly, at the same time, fashions are mostly that of 1930! One of the weirdest story elements is a guy who is brought back to life by doctors. He'd been dead 50 years and the doctors didn't seem to care one bit about the man--just that the experiment worked!! So much for professional ethics, but in the bizarro world of the future, ethics are really not especially important.But, by far the weirdest part was late in the film. Since the hero in the story cannot marry his beloved (as he was rejected by the government organization that approves marriages), he's decided to try to make himself famous in order to gain their approval. So, he agrees to take a trip to Mars!! This first Earth flight to Mars is a hoot, as not only is this the same spaceship from the Flash Gordon series of the later 1930s but the planet is hilarious. The Earth men can breath the air just fine and the planet is populated by scantily clad humanoids (mostly women) and each Martian has an exact double who is evil!! I love the evil twin angle as well as the silly Busby Berkeley-style song and dance numbers they do on Mars! It's too funny for a mere written description! And the costumes and set designs are like something out of an LSD trip!! The movie, despite having poor acting, terrible writing, a dumb script, horrible songs throughout and many dull moments is STILL well worth seeing for all the goofy moments and the absolutely insane way they anticipated the future would be. I know I said it before, but you just have to see it to believe it. My score of 2 is for the quality of the film--not the watchability. It is VERY easy to see and enjoy despite a constant stream of stupidity! In fact, it's a great film to watch with friends so you can make fun of the thing! Plus, it's fun looking for actors who were later respected (such as Maureen O''Sullivan and Mischa Auer)--so you can marvel at their ability to salvage their careers after this turkey.

This is one of the strangest films of the early talkie era. This is a sci-fi musical adventure about life fifty years in the future - 1980 at the time. The story revolves around John Garrick and Maureen O'Sullivan, whose characters are assigned alphanumeric names as is everyone else.Garrick and O'Sullivan were also teamed romantically in "A Song O' My Heart" during the same year, another early musical by Fox. At any rate, Garrick and O'Sullivan play lovers of the future that want to wed, but the state now intervenes when a woman accepts "competing bids" or proposals of marriage based on the merits of the applicants. Garrick has a competitor for O'Sullivan's hand, and the only way he can win in court is to do something outstanding. A nearby scientist needs a pilot for his spacecraft to Mars, and Garrick figures this is a way of distinguishing himself and winning the hand of his lady love.As comic relief there is El Brendel, who has a vaudeville brand of humor. He comes along for the ride to Mars too. There are several musical interludes in the film including one ode to old fashioned girls - the girls of 1930 - showing flappers as moms in a none too flattering light. They still show prohibition being enforced in 1980 too, though with a promise of light beers and wines being legalized shortly.I'd recommend this film as being good but strange fun for the right audience.

the sad thing is that the odds of seeing JUST iMAGiNE with a respectful or interested audience are pretty much nil. with the theater 80 gone and such movies being relegated to the now-moribund series that the MET used to run, you're left with the filM FORUm - not exactly a ideal venue for anything let alone a movie like JUST ImagiNe that begs to be seen as a camp monstrosity and nothing more. tHE respect or ability to take yourself back to that time is never in over-supply in any audience and the one i saw JUSTi with was quite under-endowed with: respect, intelligence, tolerance, or just a willingness to keep their mouths shut. oddly, the two biggest creeps in the audience had SEEN THE MOVIE BEFORE. IE they knew exactly what they had come for and seem to have come just to laugh. just to make fools of those who had made the movie but i thiNk just made fools of themselves.+sigh+ buT JUST iM is a mixed bag, to say the least, so maybe they had the right idea. come, howl hysterically at the bad props, bad design and esp EL BRENDl, probably correctly described by film forum's program notes as 'CINEMA HISTORY'S MOST IRRITATING COMEDIAN.' i don't know what to say. the scene of the airliner pegasus over future new YORK is among the most glorious ever in an American moviE, THE MARTIAN SCENES ARE AMONG THE WORST. which is the real movie...> - i doubt audiences in l930 knew; let alone creeps with money to waste now. model work for the future megalopolis is astonishing, off-the=scale; and an extremely clear predecessor for CORUSCANT, among other locales. a lot of the rest of the film is dreadful. what to say, what to say...well: the joke about henry FORD is priceless - almost worth the price of admission alone.