The Story of Mankind (film)  

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"Sometimes mythology and history become interwoven"--The Spirit of Man in The Story of Mankind

"The Story of Mankind is popcorn history, slavered with butter and sprinkled with salt for viewers to munch on during their history tutorial. The spirit invokes the achievements of Moses, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, da Vinci, Galileo, Shakespeare. Scratch counters with examples of humankind at its worst: Neronian Rome, the Salem witchcraft trials, the slave-holding South, two world wars, and Hiroshima—the latter, an image too iconic for comment. The spirit calls a final witness, a toddler representing the world of tomorrow. “Let there be a tomorrow for the planet Earth,” the spirit pleads. Although he argues eloquently that evil, when crushed, has made humankind stronger, the tribunal is unimpressed. "--The Screen Is Red: Hollywood, Communism, and the Cold War (2016) by Bernard F. Dick

Than let them eat cake

"The examples of Mankind’s penchant for cruelty and evil far outweigh the figures who display purity and altruism. So the film provides a compelling and irrefutable argument… against Mankind."[1]

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The Story of Mankind is a 1957 American fantasy film, very loosely based on the nonfiction book The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik Willem van Loon. The film was directed and co–produced by Irwin Allen and released by Warner Bros. The all-star cast movie was a critical failure.

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Plot

Scientists have developed a weapon, called the "Super H-bomb", which if detonated will wipe out the human race entirely. A "High Tribunal" in "The Great Court of Outer Space" is called upon to decide whether divine intervention should be allowed to stop the bomb's detonation. The devil, who goes by the name of Mr. Scratch, prosecutes Mankind while the Spirit of Man defends it.

Scratch and the Spirit of Man are allowed to take the tribunal to any period of time to present evidence for Mankind's salvation or damnation. They take the tribunal from prehistory through Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and modern times, looking at historical figures.

Ultimately the tribunal is asked to rule. The high judge, facing Mr. Scratch and the Spirit, with a large assemblage of peoples in their native costumes behind them, declares that the good and evil of Mankind is too finely balanced. A decision is suspended until they return. When they do come back they expect to see a resolution of humanity's age old struggle with itself.

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Cast

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Production background

The film was former publicist Irwin Allen's first attempt at directing live actors after his documentaries The Sea Around Us and The Animal World. In May 1955 Allen announced he would write, produce and direct a film based on the book.

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Shooting

Filming started 12 November 1956. Like Allen's previous two films, it features vast amounts of stock footage, in this case, battles and action scenes culled from previous Warner Bros. costume films, coupled with cheaply shot close-ups of actors on much smaller sets. This was the last film picture to feature the three Marx Brothers (and their only film in Technicolor), although they are seen in separate scenes rather than acting together. This was also the last film of star Ronald Colman and character actor Franklin Pangborn, and the last American film of Hedy Lamarr.

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Reception

The Story of Mankind was listed in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.

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Full film

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See also


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Story of Mankind (film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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