More About Nostradamus

Nostradamus (1938)

** (out of 4)

The first short in MGM's series that a look at the early life of Nostradamus as a scientist and how this led to his predictions of the future including the death of King Henry II. If you're interested in some of the predictions of Nostradamus then you should enjoy this short, which is well made and the footage backing the stories is well done.

More About Nostradamus (1941)

*** (out of 4)

MGM short tells some more predictions by Nostradamus. Being this film was released during WW2, a lot of the stories told deal with him predicting the current events. As with others in the series, if you're fascinated by Nostradamus then this short should keep you entertained.

Carey Wilson was a talented and well-credited writer with many distinguished movies on his curriculum vitae, from BEN-HUR to MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, to uncredited work on SCARAMOUCHE and ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE. He also had a fine speaking voice, and narrated several of MGM's short subjects, usually ones avouching crackpot theories, like the rightful king of France being a Minnesota Packers' fan, and a rich vein of gold in Death Valley. Most of all he had a bee in his ear about Nostradamus, the astrologer, cookbook writer, and author of such tortuously obscure poetry that it can be twisted to explain anything you wish. He did several of them. This is one of them, and like the others, he insists on asserting as exact fact some wild interpretations.

Inexplicably nominated for an Academy Award, this short sequel, "More About Nostradamus" follows a similar pattern to its predecessor, "Nostradamus" (1938), wherein a book of poetry is fabricated into a series of vague, liberally-interpreted after-the-fact prophecies. This sequel does two things differently, though. First, there's an introduction where the exploration of the tomb of Nostradamus plays out like one of Universal's mummy movies, complete with a curse and a scroll. I suppose one of the screenwriters had recently seen the prior year's "The Mummy's Hand."

Second, the supposed prophecies of Nostradamus are distorted and exploited for a bit of WW2 propaganda. Pity the first "Nostradamus" film didn't foresee all of this, lest alleged prognostication be of potential value. Instead, the bombastic narrator of "More About Nostradamus" lists some newsreel highlights from the rise and conquests of the Nazis and concludes with some rah-rah rallying, including imagery of the Statue of Liberty, encouraging Americans to have the back of their British brethren in the fight.