The Story of Mankind

source: The Story of Mankind

The Story of Mankind

Mankind has developed a world ending super bomb. Mr. Scratch aka The Devil (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) must debate the survival of humanity before the Outer Space High Tribunal. They bring historical characters and events to make their cases. I mostly checked this out for the Marx Brothers. Groucho does a weird comedic skit swindling the native Americans out of Manhattan after an hour of semi serious trek through history. It's odd to have a couple of comedic skits in an otherwise serious dissertation of good and evil. It's also obvious that this is a clip show stealing large crowd scenes in other cinematic epics. Non of the historical dramas are that dramatic. Nothing is truly compelling. The connective tissue is the trial which is terribly dry. I did laugh at Groucho mostly due to the clash of tones. It's not a good movie.

I saw this film on a late, late show on television a long time ago (pre-cable, if you van believe that!) It was impossible to follow the plot. Was there one? The fun is in spotting the famous actors doing bits. Groucho, Chico, Harpo. The best reason to watch any movie. Together, they would have been more of a hoot! Irwin Allen loves these all-star studded set pieces but believe me, The Towering Inferno was "toweringly" better! Most didn't make sense and most seem disjointed, but if it comes on late night again, I'll be there! Can't take my eyes off it!

Oddball movie, where major events in history are looked at from above. Well it might be the campiest movie ever made (so bad it is good) but this is NOT the worst movie ever made as many have said. But my IMDb review history/bio history reveals a love of Irwin Allen so perhaps I just dish up anything this guy makes? The Story Of Mankind takes us on a Vincent Price (Egghead in Batman) tour of history and many of the events showcased also turned up in Allen's 30 episode TV series The Time Tunnel (1966-67). But Tunnel took itself all so very seriously...unlike this movie! Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Grouch Marx turn out brilliant performances! The general look of the film is grand and colourful. I would call the film good fun rather than a classic, but not anywhere near as bad as many have said over the years.

"The Story Of Mankind" is a film with a poor reputation, which may at first strike you as odd considering its incredibly star-filled cast, but it will become less odd if you actually see the movie: a lot of those stars have insignificant, blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos, and most of them are totally miscast and unconvincing. The beginning is promisingly strange and surreal, but soon you realize what a chintzy production this really is: much of it consists of Ronald Colman and Vincent Price reacting to stock footage of other films; the new scenes shot specifically for this film look much cheaper. But Vincent Price is excellent through it all (his arguments are more convincing than Colman's!), Colman and Judge Cedric Hardwicke are good too, and Groucho Marx's funny, deliberately anachronistic sequence is also worth seeing. **1/2 out of 4.

THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957) is a very elusive all-star misfire about a heavenly debate over should earth survive or be wiped out. For the defense, you have the Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman), for the prosecution, you have Satan (Vincent Price having a ball!) They each call examples of humanity by showing famous good and evil people. We see little skits involving Nero (Peter Lorre making googly-eyes at members of an orgy!) Napoleon (22 year old Dennis Hopper playing the part like a naughty frat boy!) Christopher Columbus (miscast Chico Marx), Issac Newton (even more miscast Harpo Marx!) The cast gets stranger and stranger. Aging Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc? Where was everybodies agent? The end result looks like the biggest celebrities in Hollywood are doing a 5th graders' play! An amazing film, a tape I treasure!

Unlike most people, I really enjoyed this film. Not only was it unintentionally funny, but it had all the elements that would later be associated with many of Irwin Allen's latter works (stock footage and an all-star cast). Vincent Price is at his sinister best playing Mr. Scratch, the devil, and Ronald Colman is wonderful as the spirit of mankind. Too bad this film isn't on video or DVD because it truly is a cult classic that is an acquired taste.