Things to Come - Photo Gallery, Behind the Scenes
by Nick Cooper © 2004-2010
Presented here are a number of stills from the author's collection, broadly divided into actual general production or publicity stills, along with reprints from various publications of examples specifically from "lost" scenes. Where appropriate, they are accompanied with explanatory text, in which extracts from the Film Story or Stover Script in green denotes footage surviving in the 92m 42s print, blue in the Gutlohn Print but not the 92m 42s Standard Print, purple is the apparently lost Stover Script material (i.e. not in 92m 42s or Gutlohn), while red is dialogue and description unique to the Film Story.
On Friday 7 June 1935, a summer gale wrecked part of the massive Everytown back-lot, then being constructed on the site of what was to become Denham Studios. One man - Arthur Vailes, of Hounslow - was killed, and several others injured. This aerial photograph - which could easily be mistaken for a model - appeared in the next day's edition of the Daily Mail.
The set was original built in pre-war complete form, and then progressively destroyed as the narrative dictated. This aerial view shows the 1970 state. For orientation purposes, the tallest of the part-constructed buildings to the right-centre in the post-gale view is the same as see in the centre here ("Sandersons" department store - note the tall first floor windows), except that the point of view is some 45° counter-clockwise. Just above the small van in the centre foreground, a open-topped doubledecker bus is parked at right-angles to the Sandersons building. This is not, however, the bus seen in the market scenes, which is in another part of the set. At the top of the rear external staircase is a sign reading "FIRST AID STATION" indicating its working use. Almost completely obscured by the shadow from the Sandersons buolding is an incongruous telephone box, which is just visible being used as a sentry box at the start of the 1970 segment.
This next viewpoint is roughly mid-way between the first two, and lower down, the building with the rough external staircase on the left being the same as that seen in the top-left quadrant of the photograph above; note the position of the ruined Town Hall with its collapsed dome in both pictures. From the position of the shadows, this seems to have been taken at a later time in the day than the previous view, while the similar crowd of extras suggest it is the same scene in which the Boss is introduced to Mary that is being shot (they and Gordon are just visible below the staircase).
A visual timeline of the destruction of the back-lot is progress and will be availbale soon.
This public house - in a side-street off Everytown's square - is seen briefly in the 1940 Christmas Eve montage. Director William Cameron Menzies is standing with one leg up on the boom microphone trolley at left, directly behind him is set designer Vincent Korda, and behind him is producer Alexander Korda.
H.G. Wells with Menzies on the Square back-lot during the film of the air raid sequence. On the left, behind Wells, is one of the ainti-aircraft guns, the circular items beign bthe bases of its shells.
Menzies stands in conversation with Maurice Braddell, while Ann Todd and Margaretta Scott enjoy cup of tea. The identity of the man sat between the two women is not known.
This picture probably shows Margeretta Scott and Maurice Braddell either departing for or arriving at the former Brooklands racing track, which was the location used for the aerodrome used by the Boss's "air force." The aeroplane is a General Aircraft Monospar ST-4, and according to the 11 July 1935 issue of Flight magazine, Oxford Flying Services was based at Chilworth Aerodrome, near Wheatley, Oxfordshire.
H.G. Wells, Pearl Argyle and long-suffering director William Cameron Menzies. This and the following three photographs appear to have been taken at the same time.
Raymond Massey, with Argyle and Wells.
The original caption of this portrait of Argyle on the reverse reads:
"When your grandchildren drop in for tea in 2036 their hostess will receive them in an afternoon gown like this worn by Pearl Argyle in 'Things to Come', if H. G. Wells has correctly anticipated the curator's whims of that day, in his first motion picture story."
Note the small television set on the table she is leaning on.
Portrait of Raymond Massey as the aged Cabal.
Massey as Oswald Cabal. This was the basis for the colour artwork of Massey on the "My Favourite Part" cigarette card produced by Gallaher, but note the model aircraft on the table in the background of this original wider view.
Ralph Richardson pulls a suitably manic expression, whilst drawing his revolver.
A striking portrait of Margaretta Scott as Roxana Black, the Everytown Boss's mistress. Only in this very detailed photograph can it be seen that her ear-rings and necklace are actually made from 1930s British coins! This was the basis for the colour artwork of Scott on the "My Favourite Part" cigarette card produced by Gallaher.
Test shot of the costume originally intended for Margaretta Scott's Rowena character. In the end, the more simple outfit seen in the following picture was used.
At first glance it seems that this photo shows - and, indeed, it is oftened captioned as such - to show Maurice and Catherine in the Space Gun capsule. Rather than seats, however, most the extant footage is overhead shots showing them being strapped into the capsule in an upright position in their usual costumes at the end of the film. "Most" being the operative word, because in fact one brief shot in the film during the launch sequence does show them sitting down, wearing the different garments seen here.
Amazingly, one of the biggest casualties in terms of lost footage is the event that drives the narrative in the last part of the film, namely Theotocopulos's speech to the world. In the Standard Print, it seems that he makes a few disjointed arguments, and suddenly the entire population rebels! The Stover Script does have more of this speech, although since it retains the timescale of the Standard Print, events still seem to progress to near-anarchy far too quickly. It is only in the Film Story that the disgruntled sculptor gets to argue his full case in a speech more than ten times longer than what survives now, while having it take place in the narrative considerably earlier than the revolt allows time for discontent to fester and grow. The speech is also intercut with reactions from various members of the 2036 population - either for or against his arguments - and the few reaction shots of viewers that are now seen hardly do justice to the initial premise.
One reason for the radical re-working of this part of the film may lie in the fact that Cedric Hardwicke was not actually the original choice for Theotocopulos. The Film Treatment describes him thus: "a tall, slender man, bearded... like one of the figures in a picture by his ancestor [Domenikos Theotokopoulos] El Greco." In fact, all of Theotocopulos' scenes were initially shot with Ernest (Bride of Frankenstein") Thesiger in the role, but these were discarded because (ironically!) Wells was supposedly dissatisfied with the actor's voice. Nobody bothered to tell Thesiger this, and he actually turned up at the premiere in the full belief that he was still in the film, although he did successfully appear in its companion piece, The Man Who Could Work Miracles the following year. Some long-shots of the crowd approaching the Space Gun appear to show Thesiger, rather than Hardwicke, who only appears in these scenes in close-ups of him surrounded by a tight knot of his followers.
The lateness of Thesiger's replacement is also proven by an unlikely source. One oft-seen still shows a head-and-shoulder shot of Hardwicke on the large screen in the Square of the Everytown of 2036. Since no footage actually shows him on the screen as such, this would appear to be a dummied-up publicity shot, especially since a version exists of the same, except with Thesiger instead of Hardwicke, which has even been used on the packaging of some video releases:
A reflection of the publicity for the film when showing in the United States, with huge crowds outside the Rivoli Theatre, New York, in April 1936. Note the "futuristic" car and extras dressed as Airmen in the third picture.
RETURN TO THINGS TO COME INDEX
| 07/04/04 | First upload |
| 03/01/05 | New images |
| 27/03/06 | New images |
| 21/01/07 | New images |
| 07/06/09 | New images |
| 03/05/10 | New images |
| 06/05/10 | New image; image tags |
| 07/05/10 | New image; reformatted |
| 09/05/10 | New images |
| 29/05/10 | New image |
| 05/06/10 | New images |