The Story of Mankind (1957) on Netflix
NR19571h 40mDramaFantasySci-Fi
Scientists build a Super H-bomb that could end the human race. In the Great Court of Outer Space, a tribunal hears Mr. Scratch and the Spirit of Man argue over mankind's fate.
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- Netflix2.4/5
- IMDb4.8/101,709 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
A high tribunal convenes in the Great Court of Outer Space to weigh whether heaven may intervene and stop a Super H-bomb from detonating, a weapon scientists built that could wipe out the human race. Mr. Scratch, the devil, prosecutes humanity, and the Spirit of Man defends it. The tribunal grants both sides leave to travel to any period they choose and to call historical figures as evidence either for mankind's salvation or for its damnation. The witnesses come from prehistory and from Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment times, among them Cleopatra, Nero, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Isaac Newton and Hippocrates. The High Judge presides.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Story of Mankind (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Story of Mankind was the last film to feature all three Marx Brothers, Groucho, Harpo and Chico, and their only film in Technicolor, although the three appear in separate scenes and never act together.
- Battle and action scenes were taken from earlier Warner Bros. costume films such as Howard Hawks' 1955 epic Land of the Pharaohs, then cut together with cheap closeups of actors on much smaller sets.
- The film was first planned with only two actors, a man and a woman representing mankind through the ages, and was to shoot over more than two years in 18 countries before the plan was dropped.
- Screenwriter Charles Bennett recalled that Allen paid each of the stars $2,000, and that Greer Garson turned down the part of Queen Elizabeth I.
- Diana Lynn was cast as Joan of Arc and Yvonne de Carlo as Cleopatra, but Hedy Lamarr replaced Lynn in the Joan role and Virginia Mayo eventually replaced de Carlo as Cleopatra.
- The film was the last one for star Ronald Colman and character actor Franklin Pangborn, and the last American film of Hedy Lamarr.
- Irwin Allen, a former publicist who had made the award-winning documentaries The Sea Around Us and The Animal World, had never directed live actors before this film.
