Once in a New Moon (1935)

Once in a New Moon is just one of the vintage sci-fi movies in this box set

As a sci-fi fan of many years I love having my attention brought to any films I may have missed in the past so it was wonderful to see a movie I had never even heard of before being shown on Talking Pictures TV, a channel that shows less well known movies and TV shows.

A small English seaside town, Shrimpton-on-Sea, is wrenched from the face of the Earth by the gravitational attraction of what is referred to as a ‘dead star’ and the movie covers what happens during the enforced isolation from the rest of the planet from the discovery that the town is essentially a new moon to the resulting civil strife as resources start to dwindle.

Once in a New Moon is typical of a lot of early science fiction movies in that, if looked upon with a critical scientific eye, it fails to pass a reality check but does what sci-fi does so well – gives people a chance to view current social and political issues with enough intellectual distance between ‘real’ life and the scenario being played out.  In the case of Once in a New Moon the plot device used is isolation from the rest of society to give a brief exploration of class war albeit rather a basic one.

The landed gentry think that they shouldn’t have to share the dwindling resources on their new planetoid whilst the villagers are forced to ration what little they have leading to a General Election which the village representative, a Socialist proxy (the film doesn’t identify political ideologies), wins.  The Conservative proxy faction, the Lord and his family, refuse to accept the result of the election and continue to issue proclamations and hoard resources which leads to preparations for war.

Being a movie of just over 60 minutes in length, Once in a New Moon can’t really do much in the way of fully exploring the issue of class war and is forced to rush a conclusion that fails to investigate how the situation might play itself out had the small town’s isolation been curtailed so quickly which would have afforded a deeper exploration of human nature that underpins the ideological positions of the two sides of the political class battle.

Given that the film also throws in a love triangle between the postmaster’s daughter, a suitor from the village and a son of the manor and spends about a third of its running time to setting up the characters and situation, it achieves what it does achieve in an entertaining way albeit with a bit of a sledgehammer rather than the more nuanced approach a longer film would have allowed.

There are comedy moments with the story including the wholly unrealistic notion that both representatives in the General Election think that the other would be a better leader than they would be (something that would never occur to real life political leaders) and the villager’s preparations for battle readiness.

All in all, Once in a New Moon is an interesting movie that entertains and gives the viewer something to think about but does suffer from the malady of all early sci-fi – the fact that it would be hard pressed to interest the ‘average’ viewer given the lack of action compared with most modern day films.

Somewhere in Time (1980)

Please note: this review contains spoilers!

Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return forms the basis for an emotionally charged gentle science fiction romantic drama, scripted by the author himself.  Matheson is well-known for his ability to offer his readers or viewers something different and Somewhere in Time is a good example of that ability, blending romance, obsession and a rather unique take on time travel to give us a tragic love story with a bittersweet ending.

The film opens with a rather bizarre event – an old woman giving a young playwright a watch with the plea for him to “come back” for her – which really only gains significance eight years later when the playwright decides to return to his old college.  He decides to take a room at the neighbouring hotel and so the events set in motion eight years previously are set on their inevitable and tragic course.

The playwright, Richard Collier, played to perfection by the late Christopher Reeve, becomes obsessed with the photograph of an actress, Elise McKenna (played by Jane Seymour), he finds in the hotel’s museum and which provide the cue for a number of sleepless nights and lingering glances at the said photograph.  Driven by his obsession, he seeks out every bit of information he can find out about her and discovers that she is not only dead but was the old lady who gave him the watch eight years earlier.  Further investigation leads Collier to the Ms McKenna’s assistant and the few surviving items of personal belongings which include a book on time travel, written by Collier’s old philosophy professor.  Using the technique described in the book, Collier travels back in time to 1912 to meet his actress love.

During the 1912 scenes we meet the third pivotal character in our drama, W F Robinson, Ms McKenna’s agent (played by Christopher Plummer) who seems to have a very strange relationship with his client.  Equally obsessed with the young actress but for very different reasons, the two men find themselves at loggerheads throughout the two or three days Collier has with McKenna before he is yanked back to the present day.

A portrait of obsession, Somewhere in Time provides each of the main characters an obsession of sorts – Collier’s obsessive love for a woman he has never really met drives him to travel in time to meet her but will eventually lead to tragedy, McKenna’s obsessive love based on their short relationship in 1912 affects her life to such an extent that she willingly waited a lifetime to set in motion the events that would lead to their meeting and Robinson’s obsession with McKenna’s career (and not, as we are led to believe, a romantic obsession) finally drives her away.

Christopher Reeve gives the viewer the sense of his character's obsession with his love interest at just the right level that it remains believable even when the ultimate payoff ends in bittersweet tragedy whilst no one could fail to be enthralled by Jane Seymour’s performance as a woman who was willing to give up everything for a man she barely knew.  The scene in which Jane Seymour playing McKenna onstage in a play, going completely off-script to talk directly to Collier sitting in the audience, telling him just how much his presence had changed her life and how much she loves him, could melt even the stoniest heart.  Christopher Plummer gives an equally good performance, making the viewer at first despise his apparent ill-treatment of his client and then come to accept that what he was doing was not a malicious act of a romantically obsessed suitor but that of a man who wanted only the best for his client.

Somewhere in Time is much more than just a story of obsession though; it is a story of love at first sight, of love conquering all, of the lengths one will go to in the pursuit of love and it is a story that gives us a philosophical look at the consequences of time travel.  It is a character piece that manages to question our notions of time travel by giving us a ‘time travel through force of will’ method that also makes us question whether such a method would be possible because of the largely unknown potential of the human brain.

And with everything else this film gives us, Somewhere in Time also offers us both tragedy and joy in the final scene when the two lovers are reunited in death.  No words are needed, just the simple act of holding hands against a completely white background.

Somewhere in Time’s soundtrack perfectly brings to life the emotions for the viewer and continues to haunt the mind long after the film is over without overpowering the performances of the actors, something that more recent films are prey to.

Yes, the film has a bittersweet ending.  Yes, it is based on the well-worn cliché of love at first sight.  Yes, it has a method of time travel that people could argue is implausible.  However, this film is a beautifully shot piece of cinematic heaven for those who love romantic films and, as such, demands a place in any self-respecting romantic’s collection.

The version reviewed is that released by Anchor Bay Entertainment on Region 2 DVD.