Review of The Story of Mankind (1957) by Jay N — 17 Sep 2011

On the plus side, "The Story of Mankind" might mark the apotheosis of Vincent Price's one-dimensional but endlessly entertaining template for the hammy horror villain. It's hard to think of another picture in which Price seems to having such a gleefully macabre time -- and that allure is often the definitive feature of the genre pictures Price often took part in.

The downside: The rest of the movie is incompetently, indifferently made. Most of the movie takes place on a crude soundstage supposed to resemble heaven, where the idealist Spirit of Man (an able if uninteresting Ronald Colman) must defend the human race from the prosecuting Mr. Scratch (Price), who maintains human beings have been weak, violent and self-interested since time immemorial and their selfishness and eagerness to destroy is about to culminate in the development of the "Super-H Bomb." Colman must prove otherwise, lest the divine arbitrators (led by a bored Sir Cedric Hardwicke) choose not to intervene.

Outside of heaven the film moves through gossamer-thin vignettes exploring Western civilization, each trip intended to prove mankind's goodness or wickedness. This represents director Irwin Allen's chance to do what he does best: wrangle talent. He always was a consummate producer, if not a filmmaker. So we get weird sequences where John Carradine plays a corrupt Egyptian pharaoh, Peter Lorre channel Nero and -- most peculiarly -- Groucho Marx playing a lecherous, musically inclined variant of Peter Minuit, the man who obtained Manhattan via underhanded means.

To say the production values on these marginal scenes are cut-rate is an understatement. If you're lucky you'll get an actual set from an earlier, presumably better Warner Bros. historical epic. The most rushed sequences take place in front of green screens, with Allen doing nothing to disguise how little effort he put into continuity; witness the scene where the English capture a bewildered Jean D'Arc (Hedy Lamarr), who seemingly didn't notice the two knights sneaking up on her from behind the blue curtain at her back.

There's nothing to glean from "Mankind" you couldn't find in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," or any movie that meaningfully explored the duality of man and the consequences therefrom. The only unique feature of this movie is how hamfisted it is in communicating the message, although it's funny how extensively the creators seem to agree with Mr. Scratch about mankind's brutality. Chalk it up perhaps to Price doing what he does best the best he's ever done, but the demonic accuser makes most of the valid, memorable points, and leaves a much more impactful impression than the Spirit of Man ever manages to muster.