JUST IMAGINE (1930)

In the year 1980, people have numbers instead of names, they use one-person planes instead of cars (a bit like the Jetsons do), they need governmental approval to marry, and they get children from vending machines on the street. John Garrick is in love with Maureen O’Sullivan and meets her in mid-air as their two planes hover to discuss their situation. Another man (Kenneth Thomson) has applied to marry her, and as Garrick has been judged the less impressive of the two, Thomson has been given priority. She loves Garrick, but he has only a couple of months to do something in his field (he's a pilot) that will make him stand out above Thomson. To help him forget his troubles, Garrick's roommate (Frank Albertson) takes him to see a scientist resurrect a man who died in 1930—he was struck by lightning while playing golf. The man (El Brendel), rather like Woody Allen in Sleeper, is reanimated and is confused and astonished by the future world, and Garrick and Albertson take him in. Meanwhile, another scientist tells Garrick about a spaceship he has built and suggests that if Garrick could fly it to Mars, that might be enough to get him married to O'Sullivan. The roommates take off, with Brendel as a stowaway. On Mars, the three get involved with King Loko and Queen Loo Loo, discover two different tribes of beings, witness an elaborate dance scene performed around a huge idol, and finally make it back home where Garrick is praised for his trip and gets to marry O’Sullivan. 

You would think an early talkie sci-fi musical would be fun, if only as a period piece, but this ludicrous mess is hard to take. The only reason I sat through it was the fabulous set design. Apparently a big chunk of the films' budget went to its look: the modern apartment, the New York cityscape (looking much like the city in Fritz Lang's Metropolis), the scientific labs, the Martian landscape. The plot seems to have been thrown together in a few days to justify the visuals. In fact, the weak plot may be a consequence of the film being a musical, with the narrative seen as relatively unimportant compared to the songs and production numbers. The Mars sequence, which has a convoluted and forgettable plot, features a spectacular number, the abovementioned dance with the giant idol which was reused in the original Flash Gordon serial. It also contains a running joke that would not have been possible under the Production Code a few years later: the king of Mars is apparently gay and has a thing for El Brendel. The funniest line in the movie is when Brendel realizes that he's being flirted with and says, in reference to the queen of Mars, "She’s not the queen, he is!" In the end, Loko returns to Earth where they just might wind up as together as Garrick and O’Sullivan. Another standout line: When Garrick complains to a spinsterish census taker about the unfairness of the law, she replies, "The Marriage Act, like the Volstead Act—a noble experiment." (Prohibition, the Volstead Act, was still the law of the land in 1930.) The songs are unmemorable, El Brendel's shtick is quite dated (though I did laugh at a few of his bits), Garrick is flat, and O’Sullivan is given little to do, which leaves Albertson and Marjorie White, as his girlfriend, as the bright spots in the film. They are both energetic and amusing, which the leads are not. It doesn't help that the only available print, one shown on the Fox Movie Channel some years ago, is in poor shape. For the visuals alone, this might be worth restoring, but I won't hold my breath. Many critics have done political and cultural readings of the film, particularly as concerns the low status of women reflected in the future, but I can't work up the energy to participate. For me, this movie is all about the sets. In the photo above, Albertson and Brendel at to the left and Garrick is to the right. [YouTube]