In the far-flung future of 1940, the world is divided into two superpowers which, due to the activities of agents provocateurs, are being driven daily ever closer to all-out war.
The only hope for the world is the influential and increasingly powerful Peace League, which dedicates itself to preventing the declaration of war…whatever it takes…
.
.
.
.
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by ronald on January 2, 2015 - 10:30 pm
Quote
“As for the rest of us, we just don’t matter.”
Ohh, now, if you didn’t matter, you wouldn’t have been attacked during World War II. That has to prove *something*.
Maybe it proves the value of not mattering…
#2 by lyzard on January 3, 2015 - 5:46 pm
Quote
Ah, but according to High Treason, that never happened. Or never will happen. Sooo…thank you, Dr Seymour, I guess.
#3 by Ken on January 3, 2015 - 5:48 pm
Quote
From the map, it looks like they just assumed the Commonwealth and the Empire would stay with Britain, and likewise for the other European states and their colonies. I wonder how Japan and China ended up with the Atlantic States.
The border crossing still bothers me. There aren’t that many borders between the great powers on that map, and the Canada/US border looks like the only one where they’d be speaking English, but then why is the sign also in German? (The French I’ll call an amazing prediction of the Official Languages Act.)
#4 by lyzard on January 3, 2015 - 6:17 pm
Quote
Like I said, fascinating in its wrongheadedness. There’s no aspect of this film that makes any objective sense – including why, in this vision of the world, German should be the third language. (I think at that time the English tended to take French-as-a-second-language for granted, though perhaps here we can infer that since France were still the other great “colonisers”, there was some kind of deal?)
Looking at the map it can only be the US / Canadian border; and that is where quite a lot of the New York bootleg liquor came from, isn’t it? One interesting detail – the car is a
leftright-hand drive. Is that right for Canada, or another piece of taking Englishisms for granted?#5 by supersonic man on January 4, 2015 - 12:16 pm
Quote
Canada uses right-hand traffic and left-hand drivers seats, like the States. It sounds like you meant to say they were driving British-wise, or were you?
#6 by lyzard on January 4, 2015 - 2:51 pm
Quote
Oops, meant right-hand! (It’s the way the image is in my head.) British-wise (or Australian-wise), yes.
#7 by B. Wood on January 3, 2015 - 4:34 pm
Quote
Hey when I comes to not mattering compared to New York City, try living in a different part of New York State.
Another odd thing in this film. At the end their is no resolution about the Provocateurs, and their would be war profiteering backers. Doesn’t matter how many presidents you assainate for casting the wrong deciding vote, if these guys keep trying to frame the other side.
#8 by lyzard on January 3, 2015 - 5:48 pm
Quote
I actually know people who don’t understand why it’s “New York, NY”. 🙁
No, you’re quite right: the Peace League keeps insisting it has proof, but it never produces it; easier (and a better long-term solution) than assassinating Presidents, one would think.
#9 by Alaric on January 3, 2015 - 6:01 pm
Quote
I’d love to see a three-disk set consisting of Metropolis, High Treason, and Just Imagine- three views of the future (relative to the time the films were made) from the late 20s/early 30s, each from a different country. (Note that the only one of these three movies I’ve actually seen is Metropolis, and that was before they found a more complete version.)
#10 by lyzard on January 3, 2015 - 6:18 pm
Quote
THAT would be a glorious thing…though at this point I’d settle for decent prints of the other two films. (I have the full Metropolis but haven’t watched it yet.)
#11 by supersonic man on January 4, 2015 - 12:18 pm
Quote
What about Things To Come? It’s later, but it would kinda fit in, wouldn’t it?
#12 by lyzard on January 4, 2015 - 2:55 pm
Quote
Yes, certainly. Was it also the last of the 30s’ attempts to envisage “the future” or am I forgetting something?
I’ve been eyeing the Criterion release of Things To Come but haven’t got there quite yet.
#13 by Ericb on January 5, 2015 - 3:02 pm
Quote
Things To Come is wonderful. It starts with a very plausible 1940 and then goes completely bonkers with the rest of the century. The best part is its vision of the 1970s.
#14 by Luke Blanchard on January 9, 2015 - 12:30 am
Quote
I looked up Wikipedia’s list of 30s SF films to see if there were any others. It includes the BUCK ROGERS serial from 1939, which arguably qualifies.
The list is certainly incomplete; it doesn’t include the French or British versions of THE TUNNEL, for example. All the items it includes from 1937-39 either barely qualify as SF (such as NON-STOP NEW YORK) or are serials.
The BBC reportedly did a short TV adaptation of R.U.R. in 1938.
#15 by Jen S 1.0 on January 4, 2015 - 7:27 pm
Quote
(Amusingly enough, High Treason’s American distributor seems to have taken this in stride, producing a poster that promoted the film as, “So frank and sensational that it has been barred from exhibition in many states.”)
Ah, yes, the Banned In Boston promo strategy. Tell us ‘murrikans that we can’t see/read something and we will clamor for it.
#16 by RogerBW on January 18, 2015 - 4:33 pm
Quote
It’s still generally the case in England that French is the first (and usually only) foreign language learned.
Of course Prohibition will continue forever! They amended the Constitution for it, and you can’t just undo that.
A married woman could be considered “likely to breed” in a way that an unmarried one wouldn’t (or you’d never be able to conscript any pre-menopausal woman).
My reading in this period suggests that what most people were worried about was Bolshevik agitation, or organised labour in general. Thus the popularity of Fascism, which promised to give those idlers a taste of real discipline and get them to make something of themselves. Be careful what you ask for, etc.