THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957)

In 1957 humans invent the "Super H-Bomb" sixty years ahead of time, so now the "High Tribunal of Outer Space" must convene to decide whether humans are worth keeping around or should we just be allowed to blow ourselves up.  Taking the side of the humans in this pathetic court room drama is poor Ronald Colman as The Spirit of Man.  On the other side is dapper Vincent Price (probably the only actor to get out of this disaster unscathed) as The Devil a.k.a. "Mr. Scratch".  Both sides present evidence for their case.  The Spirit of Man spouts off moralistic soliloquies about Joan of Arc, Moses, Shakespeare, early Christians, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Isaac Newton and reads from the Bible (vomit!) while The Devil makes a much more convincing argument by showing Nero, Hitler, Cleopatra, Khufu, Attila the Hun and talking about stuff like genocide, slavery and the Salem Witch Trials.  Good thing he didn't mention SLIMED or we'd all be dead right now.  Anyway, as expected, the High Tribunal of Outer Space's final decision is a total cop out complete with a "Is This The End?" flashing across the screen in giant red letters.

As much of a train wreck as all that sounds it's actually more dull than anything else.  The historical events are all short with background sets that look like they were just slapped together with stuff found laying around the studio, there's a bunch of mysterious stock footage (the burning train came from 1939's DODGE CITY) and the actors all look pretty embarrassed.

Worth a watch for the curiosity value, but I'd be much more interested in reading about how this misguided turd ever got green-lit in the first place?  Also, what was the budget and did it make any money at all?  What did audiences and critics back in 1957 think?  In the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" where they quote Newsweek as saying "...some of the weirdest casting ever committed".  A 44-year-old Hedy Lamarr as 19-year-old Joan of Arc or Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton...yeah, I can see what they are talking about.

"The Great Clock of Outer Space"

BROKEN ARROW (1950)

[Update 10/24/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Directed by Delmer Daves, BROKEN ARROW is an above average western, but not nearly as good as the early Mann/Stewart westerns. One thing that will throw the normal western fan off is this is more about peace than action. Stewart plays an ex-soldier who's out looking for gold when he finds a wounded Apache boy and nurses him back to health.  In doing so gains a little respect from the other Apaches, but pisses off a bunch of the white people.  Some understand that he is sick of war. Soon he becomes a go between for the Indians and the whites.

Good movie, but I can't see myself wanting to watch it again anytime soon. If you're a Western fan or a Stewart fan then you'll enjoy it, but most others will find it too slow. It was interesting to see Will Geer playing such a different role opposite Stewart than in WINCHESTER '73 which was released just a few weeks later. In that movie he was a sheriff and friendly to Stewart, in this film he actually tried to kill Stewart!

NIGHT PASSAGE (1957)

As much as I enjoy Jimmy Stewart, Dan Duryea and Audie Murphy, I can see why Anthony Mann turned this movie down: the script is way more complicated than it needs to be and there's no tension. Instead of being concerned about what happened to who I spent most of my time scratching my head in confusion. From what I gathered Stewart used to work for the railroad as a bounty hunter or something. Anyway, he let a guy (Audie Murphy) escape once and they fired him. Jump back to the present day and the railroad secretly hires Stewart back to deliver $10,000 to a work camp. As luck would have it Audie Murphy and his gang rob the train, but they can't find the money since Stewart hid it on a kid. Other stuff happens including people riding horses and shooting guns, but it's just a mess. Not a disaster, just a ham-handed mess.

All three of the leads are fine, but the direction by James Neilson is dead on arrival. Also a number of the scenes are obviously shot on a sound stage, which I found very distracting. Not really worth watching.

Interesting fact: According to IMDb Jimmy Stewart was so upset with Anthony Mann for refusing to direct the movie he never spoke to him ever again!

Notice Jack Elam on the right?