H.G.
WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (1979) Blu-rayDirector: George McCowan
Blue Underground
H.G.
WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (1979) Blu-rayOf course it’s laid-back
and cheap-looking...it’s Canadian. Blue Underground has released on Blu-ray
H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, the ultra-chintzy Harry Alan
Towers (yes!) Canadian sci-fi epic from 1979, released here in the States by
equally sleazy Film Ventures International, and starring Jack Palance, Carol
Lynley, Barry Morse, John Ireland, Nicholas Campbell, and Eddie “Anne-Marie
Martin” Benton. As modest and unassuming as its budget, H.G. WELLS’
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME for some reason seems to have enraged most of the
on-line critics that reviewed it. While I’m certainly not going to make
a case for H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME being on par with superior
late 1970s/early 1980s sci-fi like STARCRASH, KRULL, SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES
IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE, MESSAGE FROM SPACE, THE BLACK HOLE, or the Senssuround
release of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY...it sure as hell beats all the STAR
WARS and STAR TREK movies (I love to get letters!). Blue Underground has fashioned
a pretty dishy remastered (from the original camera negative) MPEG-4 AVC 1080p
HD 1.66:1 widescreen transfer here, along with a new 5.1 Surround sound mix
(the original mono is also available), to accompany some brand new extras, including
an interview with Nicholas Campbell and composer Paul Hoffert.
The Moon, seven years after “The Robot Wars” have left Earth a desolate
wasteland (well...actually, when they show it with all the fall colors, it’s
rather pretty...). What’s left of the human race lives in a domed city,
New Washington, where the Moon Council, comprised of appeasing, cowardly politicians
like Senator Smedley (John Ireland, SEX DIARY, SATAN’S CHEERLEADERS),
has had quite enough of war, thank you very much. So that means they’ve
put the kibosh on science advisor Dr. John Caball’s (Barry Morse, ASYLUM,
FUNERAL HOME) massive, state-of-the-art starship, the Starstreak. Caball
sneers at the Council’s pacifist naiveté, an aggressive stance
seemingly vindicated when nothing much is done by everyone’s overseer,
Lomax, the Master Computer, when an empty cargo ship from Delta Three smashes
into the city’s dome. You see, Delta Three, a distant planet, is the only
source of mined RADIC-Q-2, a miracle drug that keeps the radiated humans alive.
So when Cabal and Smedley call D3 to ask what the hell is going on, they don’t
get Governor Nikki (Carol Lynley, THE MALTESE BIPPY, BEWARE! THE BLOB), they
get Robot Master Omus (Jack Palance, BLACK COBRA WOMAN, COCAINE COWBOYS), who
has deposed Nikki and declared himself emperor of the planet. He sent the cargo
ship to crash into New Washington—that’s called an “attention
getter”—so he could make a demand: install him as the Moon’s
and Earth’s Supreme Commander, and he will create a society serviced by
robots that will free everyone from want (sound increasingly familiar today?).
Smedley and Lomax (figuratively) shrug their shoulders at this fiat, but not
the freedom-loving Cabal. He defies orders and launches Starstreak, along with
his son Jason (Nicholas Campbell, THE BROOD, THE DEAD ZONE) and Smedley’s
daughter, Kim (Eddie Benton, PROM NIGHT, THE BOOGENS), but not before getting
a lethal dose of radiation bringing the spectrum drive engines on line. Coming
along for the ride is “Sparks,” the robot pilot of the crashed cargo
ship that Kim has reprogrammed. Will the plucky crew make it to D3, to link
up with Governor Nikki’s rebellion to destroy Omus? And will they save
the few strange, camouflaged survivors on Earth?
I didn’t know a thing about H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
when it showed up in my mailbox, other than the title link to its more famous
literary and cinematic antecedents. So when I looked up some info and reviews
online, I was somewhat taken aback at the fairly unhinged vitriol that was aimed
at what I subsequently found to be an admittedly impoverished and often goofily
wrong-headed—but fairly innocuous—sci-fi sub-sub-sub-epic. Amid
the bashing, most of the reviewers agreed on one thing: it was somehow sacrilege
for this grade Z horror to appropriate the late, great H.G. Wells’ name
for its title, when the story had nothing to do with either Wells’ novel
or his screenplay for producer Alexander Korda’s 1936 classic, directed
by William Cameron Menzies. Well...maybe they haven’t read Wells in awhile
(yikes...and read up on the guy’s bio while you’re at it: a real
headcase), but plastering his name on this meager little Canadian opus is hardly
going to do Wells’ overinflated rep any harm (who even reads him anymore?).
As for director Menzies’ outing, the new H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF
THINGS TO COME actually does crib one or two ideas from that 1936 “classic”
(which ain’t so hot, either, quite frankly), including a one-manned (or
robot) enemy plane wrecking havoc on a city, a long-running war that destroys
Earth, a minor war lord rising to power, promising peace through science, and
the premature launching of a space probe against the wishes of a segment of
society. Knowing that notorious schlock producer Harry Alan Towers never met
a public domain story he didn’t like to rip off (Korda’s movie went
p.d. in 1964), or Towers’ penny-pinching penchant for loosely adapting
already established literary properties from famous authors (he rightly knew
that a famous author’s name in the credits, like Christie, Rohmer, or
Wallace, could only help the box office), it’s not at all surprising—nor
particularly egregious—that he’d slap H.G. Wells’ name on
this jumped-up little scrapper.
And not surprising, either, H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME comes
off like a lot of Towers’ later efforts: ultra-cheap, with story corners
cut left and right amid the flimsy sets...but with a certain “the TV’s
on so we might as well stare at it” watchability that’s a testament
to his inexplicable lowest-bar luck. You can knock him all you want (it’s
a fair cop), but you can’t deny he consistently delivered movies someone
must have wanted to watch, for over 45 years (and what a perfect releasing partner
he found here in Edward L. Montoro’s deliciously dodgy Film Ventures International,
of GRIZZLY, THE DARK, THE INCUBUS, PIECES, THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, and definitely
last, GREAT WHITE, infamy).
Originally conceived as a Canadian TV pilot (possibly for syndication?) and
quickly churned out to capitalize on the STAR WARS phenomenon, H.G. WELLS’
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME begins with the de rigeur introductory
crawl setting the context of the story against a not too shabby matte painting
of the galaxy and composer Paul Hoffert’s acceptable BUCK ROGERS IN THE
25TH CENTURY disco knock-off title theme...before someone spells “its”
wrong in the text (apparently the budget didn’t provide for a proofreader).
And that’s pretty much the dynamic that plays out for the rest of the
movie. You watch a scene and think, “Well...that’s okay, considering...”
before some plot hole opens up a mile wide, or some set wobbles, and you start
cracking up. The script, written by Martin Lager (KLONDIKE FEVER, DEADLY HARVEST)
moves through its storyline too quickly for its own good, dropping potentially
interesting subplots outright (the whole “John Ireland and the Moon Council
are pacifist weaklings,” and “Master Computer Lomax is an incompetent
boob”), or giving them humorous short shrift (Carol Lynley’s comically
unprepossessing rebel band is only briefly featured every 15 minutes or so,
to the point where you keep forgetting she’s in the movie). Some of Lager’s
ideas are sabotaged by the limited production (we’re told Earth is an
uninhabitable wasteland savaged by war...but Benton and Campbell touch down
to a stark, rather gorgeous Ontario woodscape that just needs a little cabin
with smoke coming out of its chimney to make us feel all toasty and cozy inside),
while others are hinted at but not developed. One original element this knock-off
has over STAR WARS: Sparks the robot has sexual feelings for his master—he
stares at Benton with lust, and smoke comes out of head when she touches him...but
any further exploration of funky robot/hottie action is dropped before the flesh
hits the metal (Lager also pens a scene remarkably similar to one later used
in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, when Morse willingly takes a deadly dose
of radiation to put the Starstreak’s engines back on line).
Believe it or not, H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME’s special
effects and sets fare better than the script (the sets are minimalist and threadbare,
but they’re quite nicely lit by MURDER BY DECREE and A CHRISTMAS STORY
pro, Reginald H. Morris). Sure, they’re a cut-rate, bargain-basement lot,
but it’s an honest cheapness, with respectable-for-a-13-year-old-hobby-enthusiast
models, and silly-yet-solid-looking robots that at least look like someone tried
their best (Palance’s hefty-but-wobbly evil black robots come off better
than Sparks, who resembles a plumb bob with eight-track players inserted into
it and one of those plastic black ball ceiling security cameras from Kmart stuck
on top as a head). Some of the optical effects aren’t bad (that space
weaving of the dome was actually pretty cool, while the acid trip gravity force
field flip-out was hilarious...yet it got the job done). And even when they’re
bad, the bad effects are poor enough to be amusing (my favorite is Palance’s
spinning Chroma key hologram, filling up the sky to big laughs, rather like
Max Von Sydow’s scary-huge Jesus in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD).
Director George McCowan had a respectable resume by the time H.G. WELLS’
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME wound down his big-screen career, with titles like
CARTER’S ARMY, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE, SHADOW OF THE HAWK, and best
known FROGS showing he could take unexceptional genre material and make a decent,
watchable pic. After hearing Nicholas Campbell discuss McCowan’s unconventional
direction in this disc’s bonus interview, however, I’m hesitant
to estimate how much he had to do with actually shaping the movie’s tone.
But considering the surprisingly calm, naturalistic turns here (even eternal
hambone Palance takes quite a while to finally go to “11”), McCowan
must have deliberately kept his finger off the “overload” button.
Always underrated Ireland isn’t around long enough to create a character,
but his brief, steely presence alone makes an impression, while consummate pro
Morse does his usual stand-up job, treating this paycheck assignment with the
same considered focus as you’d expect he’d give Shakespeare. Poor
miscast Lynley is in the wrong place here at the wrong time in her career (THE
POSEIDON ADVENTURE did nothing for her...), but relative newcomers
Campbell and Benton keep themselves low-key and grounded, and it works, because
going all hokey and broad against these silly sets and situations would only
lead to embarrassment.
Speaking of “hokey,” “broad,” and “embarrassment,”
thank God Palance finally gives us the jacked goods we want toward
the end of H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, bellowing, “I
AM YOUR CREATOR!” to two rather sleepy rebel robots, as we the audience
hit the floor in hysterics (I’m telling you: when he gets hit in the face
with those bricks as D3 starts blowing up, I thought I was going to die laughing.
Jesus what an ignominious shot of a great actor to leave in a movie...). Palance,
at this point in-between TV gigs (the unsuccessful BRONK and the cash cow RIPLEY’S
BELIEVE IT OR NOT!), while churning out dire exploiters like THE COP IN BLUE
JEANS and WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY, doesn’t have to do much to stand out
among the teetering robots and the laid-back Canadian actors. The jolt he eventually
provides comes just at the right moment in H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS
TO COME, when we’re just about to give up on being tolerant with its misfires.
Just a tad more of that enjoyable broadness in all aspects of the production
might have put H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME a little further
over in the plus column.
I hadn’t seen H.G. WELLS’ THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME on video or
TV or DVD before, so I had nothing to compare this remastered (from the original
camera negative) MPEG-4 AVC 1080p HD 1.66:1 widescreen transfer to...but I’m
guessing it’s a big improvement. Colors may not pop (I’m putting
that down to the original production design), but they’re nicely valued
within their narrower parameters. Fine image detail is pretty good, considering
the frequent classic 1970s gauzy cinematography. Blacks are firm, while grain
is fairly tight. Screen anomalies are minimal at most. The DTS-HD MA English
5.1 stereo track has a few effective separation effects, while the hiss has
been toned down considerably. Dialogue is crisp. The original mono sounds relatively
tinny next to this. English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.
Extras include “Jason’s Journey” (13:56) a new interview with
Nicholas Campbell...and it’s one of the funniest ones I’ve ever
heard on a Blu-ray. Campbell opens up with, “Oh, it was the worst,”
and then proceeds to detail all the craziness that accompanied working on a
Harry Alan Towers production (“I had great affection for [Towers], but
he was pretty sleazy.” Classic). Campbell spills the beans on Lynley setting
up Palance’s pot delivery (Campbell’s description of crazed Palance’s
acceptance of the weed is priceless), while also implying that Towers was nailing
no less than Vanity at the time of shooting (a tip of the hat, maestro!). By
far the best anecdote is Campbell’s description of McCowan directing a
cold morning location shot (he did it inside a warm car, watching the action
in the rear view mirror, cracking the window to bark orders). As far as I’m
concerned, Campbell needs to be interviewed for every single movie he’s
ever made. Next up is “Symphonies in Space” (17:04), a new
interview with composer Paul Hoffert. There’s no way Hoffert can follow
Campbell, but it’s an interesting interview, with some nice detail about
working with sweaty, shady Towers. An original French trailer (1:58) and English
TV spot (:33) are included, along with a poster and still gallery (2:45), and
scans of the original pressbook. (Paul Mavis)