Introduction
With the release of Don’t Look Up in 2021, it’s worth noting that movies dealing with apocalyptic themes are nothing new. Since 1950 there have been well over 200 films that tackle the subject. However, there was one filmmaker who was there at the beginning to help get the genre going. His name was George Pal.
Yet, this producer and director would probably be your last choice to make entertaining films about death and destruction on a planetary scale. Simply put, George Pal was one of the nicest people one could ever hope to meet.
This might be a bit ironic, because, in the best of Pal’s movies, one of the elements that make them classics is “the edge” they contain. Some offer a chilling look at the dark side of humanity. This along with the sense of desperation that often accompanies a crisis. Especially when we’re talking about the end of the world.
When Worlds Collide
A good example of this is 1951’s When Worlds Collide. Based on the popular book by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer, it was first published in the 1930s. The story is about a group of scientists who discover that the Earth is on a collision course with two other planets.
The first planet, called Zyra, is forecast to pass very close. Thus, causing catastrophic destruction as a result of its gravitational pull. Then, the second planet, Bellus, is scheduled to slam into the Earth about a week later. Utterly destroying it.
A team of scientists steps forward to present their findings. Namely, the world will end in about nine months. They’re met with derision. In an argument that eerily mimics today’s climate change debate, they urge the world’s leaders to start building rocket ships immediately to save humanity. They also warn that by the time the average layman can see the danger in the sky with the naked eye, it will be too late.
The End Of The World As We Know It…
The scientists plan to build a rocketship to take a select few to Zyra. This planet is predicted to assume Earth’s orbit once our home planet is destroyed. But they’re laughed out of the United Nations. No one will pony up the money, except for an old bitter industrialist named Stanton, played by veteran character actor John Hoyt.
He agrees to fund the project on the condition that he gets a reserved seat on the ship designed to save the last vestiges of the human race.
The debate over doomsday ends a few reels later when Zyra passes close to Earth’s orbit. The viewer is treated to a montage of destruction. This includes massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, immense forest fires, and huge tidal waves. It’s here that we get to see the film’s most famous shot, as a wall of water engulfs midtown Manhattan.
Audiences in 1951 had never seen anything like it, and When Worlds Collide went on to collect the Oscar that year for best visual effects.
The Dark Side Of Human Nature
With doomsday imminent, the lead scientist, Hendron, is distraught to find out the brutal Stanton has brought a cache of guns to the rocket’s construction site. The two then spar over their respective interpretation of human nature, thus revealing the real conflict at the heart of the film.
Hendron insists that people are reasonable and won’t panic when the end comes. To which the ultra-cynical Stanton replies:
“You’ve spent too much time with the stars. You don’t know anything about living, the law of the human jungle. I do. I’ve spent my life at it. You don’t know what your civilized people will do to cling to life. I do because I’d cling if I had to kill to do it. And SO WILL YOU… We’ll use those guns. YOU’LL use them doctor to keep your only chance to stay alive.”
Sure enough, when the climax arrives, those who haven’t been selected by lottery begin to riot. They storm the gates with Stanton’s guns and fire vainly at the rocket ship in an attempt to stop it from leaving. Watching this scene of utter panic unfold, all the lead scientist can do is turn to Stanton and solemnly reflect:
“You were right Mr. Stanton. You’re a better judge of people than I am.”
When Worlds Collide added an interesting prediction about interplanetary travel, the rocketship rides a “sled” down a ramp that slopes into a valley and up a mountainside to gain the velocity it needs to leave Earth’s atmosphere.
Then, incredibly, the world truly does end. Imagine the impact this had on audiences in 1951 who were used to “safe” and “reassuring” wrap-ups as part of their mass entertainment.
Budgetary Woes
The survivors fly to Zyra and find a snowbank to crash their rocketship into. They then walk out into an obvious matte painting depicting a beautiful landscape full of lakes and flowers. When Worlds Collide has gotten a lot of criticism over the years for this, obviously, fake shot. This is to the point where many people still question why it won an Academy Award.
There’s no denying the effect is laughable. However, the truth is that Pal simply ran out of money. Several other obvious paintings in the movie were original pre-production designs. These were never intended to be in the finished film.
Some of the darker themes discussed above are what really make When Worlds Collide so memorable. It’s been picked up in other parts of popular culture, such as the lyric from The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
“…but when worlds collide said George Pal to his bride…”
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) shows two containers labeled Zyra and Bellus. If you ever catch Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential (1997), it’s also the movie playing on the theater marquee in the background of one of the street shots.
The War of the Worlds
After the solid success of When Worlds Collide, George Pal returned two years later with another classic in the end-of-the-world genre. Only this time, the offering would be unmatched from that era in its depiction of sheer terror and destruction. 1953’s The War of the Worlds isn’t just good science fiction, it’s one of the best films of the 1950s.
There are several reasons for this. For starters, the script, written by Barre Lyndon, eschews humor, silly banter, and romantic subplots for a straightforward depiction of what an invasion of planet Earth would look like. The Martians in The War of the Worlds are relentless, methodical, and merciless as they systematically set out to exterminate the entire human race.
The tone of the film is set early on, when a local pastor approaches the Martian war machine, reciting Psalm 23 and holding up a bible as a sign of peace and friendship. The Martians very politely let him finish the prayer before incinerating him with their death ray.
“…though I walk through the shadow of the Valley of Death, I will fear no evil…”
Unstoppable Martians
Of course, this is a signal for the military to let loose with everything they have against the invaders. Alas, their efforts come to naught. In addition to their death ray, the Martians have a protective shield that stops all incoming bullets and bombs. This makes them pretty much untouchable.
If that wasn’t enough, there are some funky green balls of light that shoot out from the side of the Martian’s machines, which disintegrate anything they hit. Very clearly we can see this hardly makes for a fair fight.
Watching the carnage, Dr. Clayton Forrester (This is where the character on Mystery Science Theater 3000 got his name), provides this prescient piece of advice to the highest-ranking military commander on site:
“Take my word for it General…this kind of defense is useless against THAT KIND OF POWER!!” You better get Washington on the phone…AND FAST!!”
Soon, our military forces are in full retreat. It’s interesting to note that in the original script, the army was able to bring down one of the Martian machines. It showed the invaders weren’t invincible.
However, without this key scene, the viewer is left wondering what exactly the military brass are talking about when they say things like: “Hold this line here.” This is because quite frankly, from what we see, any defense looks like a complete and suicidal waste of everyone’s time.
Production Design
But again, perhaps this is one of the reasons why the film works so well. The very design of the Martian ships contributes to an atmosphere of doom and dread. Looking like giant floating manta rays, their sleek curves and gliding motion make them look otherworldly as they deal out death and destruction.
It should be noted, however, that in modern prints of The War of the Worlds eagle-eyed viewers can’t help but notice the wires in some of the shots. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Pal’s special effects team did shoddy work.
The film was shot using a three-strip Technicolor process. When the three layers were combined, it “softened” the look of the film. Multiple tests were done at the time to make sure none of the wires that made the Martian machines “float” were visible.
It wasn’t until years later – with the advent of digital scanning techniques – that new master prints of the film were struck. This had the effect of removing any inherent blurring between the composite layers.
Modern, digital copies of the film look fantastic. However, the visible wires are one of the trade-offs. Regardless, The War of the Worlds brought home George Pal’s second Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Revolutionary Sound Effects
The film probably should have also won something for its ingenious sound effects. The distinctive sound of the Martian heat ray was created using violins and cellos being played at an extremely high pitch. Also, some of the other elements making up the film’s unique aural design were revolutionary.
A synthesized echo was used to generate the hissing rattlesnake sound the Martian machines make as they would glide over the landscape. Also, the rapid dum-dum-dum sound the heat ray makes while revving up was created by using an early version of an electric guitar.
In addition, there are the futuristic whooshes the green disintegrating pieces of protoplasm make as they launch from the tips of the Martian’s wings. This effect was created by hitting a high-tension cable with a hammer. Any Star Trek fan worth his or her salt will immediately recognize the same sound effect whenever The Enterprise fired a photon torpedo in the original series.
The Time Machine
Pal’s next foray into end-of-the-world- territory came in 1960, with another sci-fi classic called The Time Machine. Unlike most of his other films, he actually directed this production. As usual, Pal was intimately involved in overseeing the script as well as helping with the design aspects of the film.
In The Time Machine, we journey with Rod Taylor as he climbs aboard the title contraption and travels through the rest of the 20th Century. He witnesses a nuclear holocaust that wipes out humanity. Then, centuries later, he finds himself in what appears to be the Garden of Eden.
The beautiful surroundings are populated by a race of blonde, childlike humans called the Eloi. At first glance, they all appear to be living in paradise. However, soon Taylor finds a dark side to this future Utopia. Underground nearby, there lives another form of misshapen humans known as the Morlocks. They have raised the Eloi for food, and periodically “cull the herd” to fill their cannibalistic cravings.
This is not exactly a pleasant situation. Taylor rescues a group of the Eloi before they become steak tartare. He then uses his time machine to return to where he belongs. Once there, he finds that no one will believe his story.
Three Books…
Later, his friend and housekeeper discover that the time machine is missing, along with three books from the inventor’s personal library. Surmising that Taylor must have gone back to the future to build a new world with Eloi, the audience is left with the following open-ended question. What three books would YOU have taken if you were going to rebuild human civilization from scratch?
This mixture of whimsy and science fiction helps make The Time Machine a favorite among the many fans of George Pal’s films. And it resulted in yet another win at Oscar time for Best Visual Effects.
While The Time Machine was the last of Pal’s films to look at the fate of mankind, we wanted to take a quick look at one more movie he produced and directed. This one may not feature a smorgasbord of death and destruction. However, it’s immensely rewarding in its own way.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
1964’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao features Tony Randall in seven different roles. He portrays an elderly Chinese gentleman named Dr. Lao who runs a circus. Merlin the Magician. The Abominable Snowman. The god pan. A giant talking serpent. A blind fortune teller named Apollonius of Tyana, and Medusa, who turns any man who looks at her into stone.
Randall is just great in all these parts and was helped immeasurably by the head of MGM’s makeup department – Bill Tuttle – who won the very first Oscar for makeup with this particular film.
All these characters form part of a traveling roadshow, which makes a stop at a dying desert town at the turn of the 20th century. There, trouble is brewing as an unscrupulous developer is pressuring the townspeople to sell their land while keeping secret the fact that the railroad is coming. The mayor, who’s in on the scam, asks the developer if he’s afraid of losing. This brings this ultra-cynical reply:
“Who wants to lose? I do… Every time I bet on weakness, corruption, or fallibility, I want to lose. BUT I ALWAYS WIN.”
Charles Beaumont
As this tale of fantasy and morality begins to play out, you might be forgiven for thinking you’re watching an extended version of the original The Twilight Zone television show. That’s because 7 Faces of Dr. Lao was written by one of that show’s most prolific writers, Charles Beaumont.
Beaumont had written over twenty episodes for Rod Serling’s iconic show. Many of these became celebrated classics, such as: “The Howling Man,” “Living Doll”, and “Dead Man’s Shoes,” among such classics.
Much like one of his characters, Beaumont soon died in a very mysterious way. While enjoying literary success, he suffered from a rare brain disease that made him age prematurely. The subsequent loss of his mental faculties made writing scripts exceptionally difficult.
When Charles Beaumont passed away in 1967 at the relatively young age of 38, his friends described his physical appearance as resembling that of a 95-year-old man. One said he “just dusted away.”
Mirrors Can Be Cruel
Part of what makes 7 Faces of Dr. Lao such an interesting film is the candid perspective it offers on human nature. In a particularly affecting sequence, one of the town’s most vapid residents goes to the circus to have her fortune read. She’s an elderly widow who runs her mouth continuously and fashions herself a great beauty queen.
She gets a session with Apollonius of Tyana (Tony Randall) who explains that he’s cursed and has to tell the truth. When she asks him in a frivolous fashion about her future, Apollonius provides this response:
“I see your remaining days as a tedious collection of hours full of useless vanities…When you die, you will be buried and forgotten, and that is all. And for all the good or evil, creation or destruction, your living might have accomplished, you might just as well have never lived at all”
This response prompts the woman to completely break down. She bursts into tears and runs from the room. It’s pretty sobering stuff. Especially when you think of all the people in your daily life this stone-cold assessment could likewise apply to.
Words To Live By
The film shares other pieces of wisdom as well. Such as when Mike, a 10-year-old boy in the film, drops by Dr. Lao’s wagon late one night. Dissatisfied and bored with his life, Mike asks the elderly Chinese gentleman for a job with his circus. His request is turned down.
In doing so, Tony Randall drops the accent, and with perfect clarity offers the following piece of advice. Courtesy of Charles Beaumont, it has a resonance all its own:
“…Mike, let me tell you something. The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it… Every time you pick up a handful of dust and see not the dust, but a mystery…a marvel, there in your hand. Every time you stop and think, I’m alive. And being alive is fantastic…Every time such a thing happens, you’re part of the circus of Dr. Lao…”
These words are especially poignant when you realize they were written by a man who was already feeling the debilitating effects of a disease that would rob him of his life within three years.
Those sentiments sound like something George Pal would echo as well. When he died in 1980 at the age of 72, the world was left a poorer place. Loved by all who worked with him, he was quite simply put, a very decent man.
George Pal’s Legacy
Pal always treated his subordinates with respect. Even when he wanted a change in a graphic or effect, he seemed to have a gift for making technicians feel like it was their idea. Behind the scenes, he got his hands dirty by assisting with almost everything the production design called for.
People respected Pal for his hard work, the devotion he displayed toward his craft as well his basic belief in the goodness of human beings. Tony Randall later summed up how a lot of people viewed Pal’s legacy:
“George’s pictures were NOT about the special effects he was the master of…they served the story and they served character…[He] did it with his sweetness, his kindness. He was such a dear fellow, you wanted to please him. I don’t think he said an unkind word to another human being in his life”
Quite a rarity in Hollywood. By the end of his career, Pal and his technical teams had garnered a total of eight Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named a lecture series on fantasy films in Pal’s honor, and he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. All of this goes to show you don’t have to act like a jerk to gain the respect of your peers.
