Brett Sinclair

A little late to this thread. Although not a film, there is an episode of The Twighlight Zone I remember "The Twilight Zone" .... The Man (1 episode, 1961)(IMDB) that featured Charles Bronson as the supposed last man on earth. I won't give it away just in case you get around to being able to find a copy, but as with most of the TZ there's a twist/fable

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

ChristineCB

The one Bronson episode I recall has Elizabeth Montgomery and they're not exactly, well, comrades. And she's not exactly wiggling her nose... That one?

I've seen several of TZ's views of End Of World, and all are fairly fascinating. i'm still intrigued by my relatively universal condemnation of these films' second halves. I keep wanting to complain, "When they start getting into character development, the film deteriorates-!"

As if I'm pleading for 'more effects, more action'. But when I think of all the disaster movies, yes, the best parts (Poseidon, Towering Inferno, all the quake and volcano, asteroid, etc, films), it's the scenes of destruction where effects ARE everything... those are the 'best' scenes of those movies, or the ones that I recall enough to see again.

However, the TZ episodes - almost devoid of such expensive effects - have good stories instead. I think if I get fascinated with effects, or if they're the Most Memorable Scenes, I want to blame the rest of the film's weaknesses instead.

Brett Sinclair

That's the one, if I'd spent more time on it I would have remembered Elizabeth Montgomery. I'm impressed with your knowledge!

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

ChristineCB

Endora (Agnes Moorehead) and Elizabeth Montgomery both did Twilight Zone episodes and both had the same number of speaking lines. One episode was called WOMAN. The other episode was named THE WOMAN.

merryowen

I won't either although I have to say it is the most astonishing twist in Bronson's entire cinematic career

JamesM

Christine, I ordered a Polish film made in 1959 on DVD called Depot of the Dead about tuck drivers released by Facets.

By mistake, I was sent another Polish film released by facets called The End of August at the Hotel Ozone (1967). Guess what, it has an end of the world scenario.

Have you seen Battle Royale director Kinji Fukasaku's Virus (1980) starring George Kennedy?

hankoler

how about the "THE BEDFORD INCIDENT"

ChristineCB

JamesM, yes, I did get VIRUS a few months ago. I'm so glad, too (haha) although I have a great fondness for George Kennedy. I have to admit that I probably 'met' him thru his NAKED GUN films first, and then found him in so many great films (Charade, Cool Hand Luke, Fool's Parade with Jimmy Stewart, and some western and war films). And I kept thinking he could probably make me laugh if only he'd make one of those "Yeouch - that's gonna leave a mark-!" faces.

Hankoler, I usually think of BEDFORD INCIDENT as part of my Cold War collection, but it certainly is the end of THEIR world, true. In the '90s when that Gene Hackman-Denzel Washington submarine movie came out ("Crimson Tide" 1995), I had seen BEDFORD INCIDENT by that time and felt CRIMSON was substituting yelling and screaming for the better tension-building devices used in BEDFORD. CRIMSON really wanted us to take sides and see a 'psycho captain', but BEDFORD does that so much better without the yelling and screaming. I kept thinking Fred MacMurray would step out of the Crimson Tide wardroom and tie down both of them and take over the ship himself. "Anyone want a strawberry?"

Bilmo

Just a thought; how about "The Day The Earth Stood Still"? That amazing robot, (Gort, I think?) ready to destroy the world, if the Earthlings start propagating their wars outside their own planet! A harsh warning from The Spaceman (Clatu).

Perhaps, if we had that type of threat hanging over us in present times, we might start thinking of how to cure the latest disease, rather than how to find more efficient means of killing each other!

I must admit that I was a tad disappointed that he merely walked back into his spaceship and left, after issuing the threat, rather than demonstrating some more of his deadly power.

hankoler

There was a film ,in colour, where another planet past close to earth and part of the earth was torn away, cant remember the name of it though.

penfold

I can give you a couple of corkers from the silent era....and they're available as a double bill on DVD...from Denmark, where they were made.. The End of The World (Verdens undergang) is the grandaddy of all the 'Comet hitting the earth' disaster movies, with special effects and camerawork that would not look out of place in 1930's Hollywood, made during WW1. Absolutuely breathtaking.
A Trip To Mars (Himmelskibet) is instead the grandaddy of all the 'Trip to alien world where superior beings teach us the error of our ways' films....the Martians here being humanoid pacifist vegetarian telepaths...again, during WW!, this is radical stuff. The technology is all WW1 vintage too, but it's gripping, heightened (Camp if you like) stuff ...Available to buy here... http://eshop.dfi.dk/Shop/ItemList.php? CategoriSelect=6
and did I mention the English intertitles??

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Apocalyptic enough??

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

No, that's just a normal Bank Holiday in Britain

Steve

ChristineCB

Pen, thanks for those two Silent titles. I ordered them and am looking forward to seeing them.

And DAY EARTH STOOD STILL is as threatening an end of the world as the zombie-virus films.

What do you think happened to those diamonds that Hugh Marlowe takes off of little Bobby and shops them around? I'll bet he never gave 'em back. And knowing Patricia O'Neal's later problems, she probably married Hugh - no wonder she suffered so much! Then she trades him in for a one-legged John Wayne... end fo the world, indeed.