When Worlds Collide is a 1951 apocalyptic drama produced by George Pal (War of the Worlds), directed by Rudolph Maté and written by Sydney Boehm based on the novel by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer. A classic Sunday afternoon TV matinee film of my childhood, that isn’t available on Blu-ray yet, I thought I’d take a look at the iTunes 1080p download.
In When Worlds Collide, the Earth is threatened with impending destruction by the appearance in the solar system of two rogue planetoids, Bellus and Zyra. Pilot David Randall (Richard Derr) finds himself involved in a race against time to build a ‘space-Ark’ to carry a handful or survivors to Zyra, where they can rebuild the human race.
Based on a 1933 novel, the film adaptation (as noted elsewhere) takes a very Sunday school view of the on-coming apocalypse. Sixteen couples are selected by lottery for saving on the ‘space-Ark’, and pairs of ‘useful’ animals are also loaded aboard (so much for diversity).
The ending raises some interesting questions – in the distance are huge pyramids, and other alien structures. Pal was keen to film the sequel novel ‘After Worlds Collide‘, which these structures set up, but the commercial failure of ‘The Conquest of Space’ put an end to those plans.
When Worlds Collide iTunes HD Review
The 1080 iTunes HD download clocks in at 2.83 gigabytes. The bitrate averages at 4.69 Mbps over the entire feature with peaks as high as 13.2 Mbps. Two audio tracks are provided an English and French Stereo 160 kbps AAC track (though the content is monophonic). Total running time is one hour twenty two minutes an twenty nine seconds. Aspect ratio is approximately 1.33:1.
Quality is very good, however quality varies from shot to shot, as it almost certainly did in the original presentations. Three strip film production required extremely careful setup, and some shots, especially second-unit type material tends to show slight misalignment. Grain and minor damage is present in many shots, it seems that the film has escaped the ravages of DVNR. There is no detectable macro-blocking that I could see.
Conclusion
The new world. Note the pyramids in the distance, and the caves ? To the left.
Excellent: five out of five. The iTunes presentation of When Worlds Collide is really first rate. If you haven’t seen it before: you are in for a treat. Easily better than the 2001 DVD. A Blu-ray might look a bit better, but the iTunes version is here now and look great. Highly recommended.
ITunes HD 1080p Screenshots
Only moments to spare before destruction !
Miniature volcano explodes !
Immaculate blackboard technique.
Our hero David Randall (Richard Derr) fools around.
At the controls of the space ark in When Worlds Collide