10 Things I Learned: Things to Come

Author H. G. Wells’s original film treatment for Things to Come was titled Whither Mankind? and was based on two of his books: The Shape of Things to Come and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. The treatment’s title was based on a lecture Wells had given in 1934 called “Whither Britain,” in which he advocated for a one-world government, an end to nationalism, and an international air-based police force to maintain world unity.

In 1934, Wells met with producer Alexander Korda and agreed to make the film with him at Korda’s newly constructed studios in Denham, England. The filmmaking team would also include production designer Vincent Korda, Alexander’s brother, and, directing his first feature film, William Cameron Menzies, who was known for his own production design. Pictured are (from left) Wells, actor Pearl Argyle, and Menzies on the film’s Everytown 2036 set.

Wells, at the height of his popularity as a best-selling author and monumental cultural personality, held a huge amount of sway over all aspects of the production. There was one battle he did not win, however; although he wanted the film to be presented as “H. G. Wells’ Things to Come” and have no on-screen credits, relying instead on programs handed out to audiences to supply the credit information—“This is a long-needed innovation upon cinema practice,” he said. “Few people remember the names that are just flashed on the screen”—ultimately, the credits appeared in both places.

Wells thought the vision of the future portrayed in 1927’s Metropolis was garbage. In one of the many memos he sent to the production crew of Things to Come, he wrote, “All that balderdash one finds in such a film as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis about ‘robot workers’ and ultra-skyscrapers, et cetera, should be cleared out of your minds before you work on this film. As a general rule you may take it that whatever Lang did in Metropolis is the exact contrary of what we want done here . . . There we have the guiding rules to observe. But within these limitations and style I would say to our designers, for God’s sake, let yourself go!”

When it came to designing the world of 2036, the film’s producers enlisted avant-garde artists, architects, and designers as consultants; they ended up rejecting ideas submitted by such luminaries as Fernand Léger and Le Corbusier. Shown here is a detail from a poster design Léger had created for the 1924 film L’inhumaine.

Bauhaus pioneer László Moholy-Nagy was enlisted by Vincent Korda to contribute to the rebuilding of Everytown sequence. Only a few of those shots remain in the final film. However, a can of 35 mm film containing unused effects created by Moholy-Nagy was found at Denham Film Studios in the 1970s. This footage (a frame from which is shown here) is included as a supplement in our release.

Vincent Korda took inspiration for the production design of the furniture in the 2036 part of the film from the designs architect Oliver Hill had presented at the Exhibition of British Industrial Art at London’s Dorland Hall in 1933.

Arthur Bliss’s score for Things to Come came out on a three-disc 78 RPM soundtrack album in 1935, before the film itself was released. The music was probably the most successful aspect of the film. Bliss conducted hundreds of live performances of it over the following decades.

Actor Ernest Thesiger (The Bride of Frankenstein) shot all of his scenes as the artist Theotocopulos before Wells replaced him with Cedric Hardwicke (left). According to Thesiger’s unpublished memoir, Wells had originally conceived the character “as an El Greco”—a sensitive artist—but ultimately realized he wanted “a more robust person—more of a Benvenuto Cellini.”

Things to Come was rereleased in 1940, because it was seen to predict World War II and the Blitz. Wells was often lauded for his uncanny prophetic abilities, and he was not above gloating. He apparently said frequently that he wanted his epitaph to read, “God damn you all. I told you so.”

Susan Arosteguy is a producer at the Criterion Collection.