The Image Moves (continued)

In  concentrating on the material future rather than the human condition, things  to come is left to rely on its visual set pieces. This is at odds with the  films serious tone which tended to produce uninspired and conservative design  which dated in one decade more than the novel had in three.

On  the other hand Flash Gordon and his comic book companions had a very big  influence on the generation of designers, who spent their Saturday afternoons of  their childhood enthralled by their antics. The serials are still popular today,  though more for their nostalgic value or hilariously unsophisticated  mentality.

Things  to Come's failure had put SF feature films in the doldrums. Through the 1940's  no films were made of any lasting significance. None at all with strong  futuristic images. Even the Flash Gordon serials waned and died. The ware  was a major contributing factor, it is possible that people limited their  thinking to the wars end, and that the film industry reflected this in its  preoccupation with war films.

Science  fiction was to return in force in the early 1950's where it found the world  radically changed. The second world war had induced a considerable leap in  technological progress. It also started the nuclear age. Mans permanence on the  Earth was for the first time thrown into doubt. As Thomas Clareson wrote 'Man might not conquer the stars... Mushrooming technologies might reduce  him to a robot existence if it does not annihilate him'.

The  mood of the genre was darkened. Men of science were no longer just eccentric  inventors who habitually visit the Moon, they were responsible for unleashing  terrible destructive forces on the world. The 50's audiences, living with the  threats of the cold war with its flying saucer menace had an insatiable appetite  for films which let them safely live out their fears. There was a constant  invasion from every race of bug-eyed monsters in the galaxy. Most scientists  were obsessed with projects which were potentially cataclysmic, the cataclysms  usually represented by men in rubber  costumes.

By  the mid 50's a huge gulf had developed between SF literature and film, which  just seemed to get cheaper and more derivative. It was during this time that the  genre lost any pretence of seriousness. There were a few notable exceptions,  like Destination Moon, made in 1950.

Destination  Moon was scientifically accurate. For once a juvenile piece of literature  was reworked into a mature film. The design and visualisation was of a very high  standard. Astronomical artist Chesley Bonsetell provided lunar backgrounds while  German rocket expert Hermann Obert was a technical advisor . This credited, the  film was intensely boring.

George  Pal, the films producer went on to make When Worlds Collide and War of the Worlds, which was the most spectacular of the 50's  alien invasion movies. Though  its story was originally written by H.G. Wells it  followed many of the conventions of the 50's SF idiom.

As  well as bringing the story up to date and setting it in America, Well's Martian  tripod war machines were ditched. In their place were sleek and sinister metal  manta rays. Equipped with death rays shaped like street lamps. There were  technical reasons for having the Martians float (getting tripods to walk  dramatically is very difficult). It is also likely that art Director Al Nozaki  wanted to exploit the audiences fear of the flying menace.'

Meanwhile  Walt Disney was following Pals Version of H.G.Wells story War of the Worlds with  a remake of Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the sea . Disney was a  'control freak' and held a fascination with motive technology, two of captain  Nemo's strongest traits. Hence Disney considered himself and Nemo to be kindred  spirits. Disney had the integrity to make the film faithful to its Victorian  origins. It was however not a film with Victorian values, it was very much a  product of the fifties with the usual mad scientist and monsters which appeared  in so many contemporary films.

Disney's  production was the second best designed SF film of the 50's. The best was  released the following year (1956). It was called The Forbidden  Planet.

Loosely  based on Shakespeare's Tempest, it foreshadowed both Star Trek and  Star Wars with its Futuristic Visuals. Even though the film was a financial and  critical success, no studio wanted to risk such high budgets on a genre which  had so often proven its 'flopability'.

The  Forbidden Planet became the visual benchmark for the genre, when the studios  wanted to make them cheaper and quicker. The films designs are so much better  than those of its contemporaries because they avoid some of the more ludicrous  cliches such as silver jump suits and men in rubber monster suits. While  the  cliches that they do use are realised in a way that invested the film in a  hitherto unknown believability. The films robot character, Robby was probably  the most celebrated in the genre, designed like all of the films devises by  Japanese draftsman Bob Kinoshita. Robby was so popular that he later went on to  star in his own film called The Invisible Boy. Robby was the playmate of  the boy of the title, shadowing the fact that he was the darling of the toy  industry.

In  fact it was about this time that science fiction films became the merchandising  machines that they are today, where by the design of the film can sell  independently as toys, lunch boxes etc.

The  most characteristic thing about the SF of the sixties was the diversity of their  subjects. In 1960 the first film adaptation of Ian Flemings James Bond books was  released. Though not science fiction in any strict sense, it did have a generous  supply of futuristic gadgets and sets.

The  Bond series greatly widened the appeal of SF films by dealing with its absurd  gimmicks in a serious way. It showed that futuristic devices didn't have to be  brightly coloured or silver, they could look very much like real  objects.

Few  of the science fiction films in the 60's involved much in the way of futuristic  design. There was the usual crop of classic adaptations, such as a remake of The First Men in the Moon, The Time Machine (another  H.G. Wells story) and more unusuallyRobinson Crusoe on Mars. None  of which matched Forbidden Planet in scope or quality. It was at this time that  science fiction became a regular feature on television, starting in 1959 with  the Twilight Zone. In Britain with Dr Who and the Thunderbirds puppet series.

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