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This is the perhaps the best script from a writer's point of view of any of the 1950s low-budget "B" sci-fi films. Galactic fiction being beyond the capacities of Hollywood writers' imaginations, the best they could do is "futuristics", stories of apocalyptic, invaded, poisoned or plagued Earth. Larger budgets made possible color features such as "War of the Worlds"; and "When Worlds Collide"; others with less backing made "Kronos", "Earth Versus the Flying Saucers" and this gem of the genre. Here four astronauts who return from a mission to Mars are caught in the usual 'time warp'; and so they return to find a devastated Earth of the future--atomic war being the destructive force. The astronauts are led by dependable leading man Hugh Marlowe; the others are young Rod Taylor, Christopher Dark and announcer--voiced nice guy Nelson Leigh. They become involved with The Council, led by Everett Glass and run afoul of fine actor Booth Colman as a man jealous of their potency as political leaders and their genetic potential to please the local female population. Others in the cast include fine character actors Paul Brinegar and Herb Vigran. Borrowing a page from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Opar tales, author and director of the film, Edward Bernds, has introduced beast men, impotent males and gorgeous women who seem seem almost to belong to a different race. The three lovelies are played by capable leading lady Nancy Gates, Lisa Montell and Shawn Smith. What sets this film apart is fine music by Leigh Harline, intelligent sets, enjoyably-revealing costumes for the ladies and its dialogue and interestingly-developed characters. The four astronauts learn about the new society of wrecked Earth, its problems and hopes, as we do, adding to the impact of the story. Dark has a good part as he mourns his lost family; the older Leigh enjoys his status as a sought-after-male and scientist, Taylor is stalwart and promising but battles his Australian accent. Marlowe makes everyone else look better as usual by his intelligence and ability to handle adventure-level dialogue. The action climax sets the four up to be the leaders of a new and perhaps better world, with the beast men at bay and affairs of the heart settled admirably-- and Dark in charge of the children who are the hope of a rebuilt Earth... I cannot recommend this exercise in clever low-budget sci-fi film-making too highly. This is an exciting and interesting narrative.

World Without End has four astronauts on a Mars mission enter a time warp similar to what Charlton Heston and his crew encountered in Planet Of The Apes. Only they figure out before the end that it is earth about 500 years into the future where an atomic war has pretty well decimated the planet.

Fortunately for them the world is not just the savage mutants they inhabit outside. There is a civilization kept alive in earth's caves. But they're a pretty pacific lot and frown on these 20th century types with their weaponry which simply consists of handguns.

The four astronauts are Hugh Marlowe, Nelson Leigh, Christopher Dark, and Rod Taylor who would soon star in his own film about time travel. In the end it turns out that these guys and their knowledge of weapons come in pretty useful after all.

The director of this film Edward Bernds who did this for Allied Artists. Bernds who started out working on Frank Capra films was a director of several Bowery Boy features for Allied Artists formerly Monogram Pictures. This was a man used to working with minuscule budgets and realizing that the film didn't turn out half bad.

And unlike Planet Of The Apes it ends on a somewhat optimistic note.

Four astronauts on a mission to Mars find themselves accidentally transported 500 years into the future. There they discover a post-apocalyptic Earth with cyclopean mutants and giant spiders. Luckily for them there are also plenty of beautiful babes around. Plus all of the men left on the planet are pacifist wimps, so the ladies are in desperate need of some Vitamin "D," if you catch my drift.

Fun Technicolor sci-fi movie, filmed in CinemaScope, from the golden age of science fiction. As others have stated, there are some plot similarities to sci-fi classic "The Time Machine." Coincidentally one of the astronauts here, Rod Taylor, would go on to star in the definitive film version of that story. This is an early role for Aussie Taylor, who is clearly still working on his American accent. The leader of the astronauts is 'old reliable' Hugh Marlowe, who was in a couple of sci-classics himself ("The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Earth vs the Flying Saucers" ring any bells?). Nelson Leigh plays the requisite scientist of the group. He knows what's going on no matter what's going on. Christopher Dark plays the emotional one upset because he left his wife & kids behind. Booth Colman is the villain among the wimpy future men. He doesn't like how the future women are attracted to these "reckless and brutal" primitives from the past. The lovely ladies of future Earth are well-represented by Nancy Gates and Lisa Montell, among others.

Love the great old sets, costumes, and special effects. One man's cheese is another man's treasure. The astronauts dress and act like grunts from a WW2 movie, which is awesome. Some of the dated views expressed in the film provide some unintended comedy today but, to me, the added historical and sociological aspects are a plus not a minus. And, let's be real, some of it is pretty funny. I think if you're someone who enjoys sci-fi from the '50s you will like this a lot. It's not one of the best but it is very entertaining.

Space pioneers are returning to Earth from a trip to Mars when their spaceship is propelled into the future. They land and discover a vastly different Earth than the one they left. All of the elements that went into the 50s scifi genre are here. Space travel, mutant creatures, and life in the far distant future. This film was a better than average film for its time. The effects are poor compared to today but the dialog makes up for it. The color is sharp and clear and there is a good cast to make it enjoyable. Pull up a chair and break out the popcorn. Following the adventures of the newly returned space travelers makes for a good Saturday afternoon viewing.

A low-budget kiddie sci-fi flick from the same period that brought us "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers," and interestingly enough starring the same actor, Hugh Marlowe, a sort of older version of that other '50s sci-fi star, Richard Carlson. Four astros headed for Mars go through a time warp in space and end up on Earth after atomic Armaggedon has decimated the planet. This makes things convenient both set- and costume-wise, as all the cities and highways are gone and all that's left on the planet's surface is a bunch of murderous cavemen. Ah, but inside one particular cave, the astros encounter an underground habitat containing what's left of humanity. The plot is sort of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" in reverse. Because the story is actually interesting (the sun-deprived humans are dying out and the astros try to convince them to return to the planet's now-decontaminated surface), it's easy to forgive the theatrical photography, cardboard sets, and the three '50s-type females in their restaurant hostess outfits and bouffant hairdos. One way or the other, the always-dependable Marlowe keeps everything nicely grounded as the leader of the astros. The film looks like it cost $1.98 to make, but a reasonably strong story and decent-enough cast make it worth a glimpse. A young Rod Taylor. the Russell Crowe of his day, plays one of the other astros -- although he's given little to do except to bare his chest and make the ladies swoon.

Patterned somewhat after H.G Wells novel "The Time Machine" and a fore-runner of "Planet of the Apes" (1968) This space-time travel story is better than it sounds. The astronauts are thrown forward in time but. actually it seems the opposite, as they return to a planet inhabited by cave-man like creatures-save a small group hiding out underground. The tight script and superior cast prop up this small budget picture, and the action moves it along so we don't have time to concentrate on it's short-falls. One of the better 'B' sci-fi flicks of the 50s.

Due to relativistic time dilation, the crew of a rocket ship that inexplicably accelerated to a tremendous velocity find themselves on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2508, a world divided into effete and brutal societies. The film is highly sexualised, with the virile and 'manly' astronauts finding themselves in an underground society of timorous, weak-willed and physically unimpressive 'girly-men' (the leader is 'Timmek", a name evoking Dicken's famous little crippled boy) wearing outfits that look like elf-costumes, and lusty, full-bodied women, many of which are wearing halter tops or short skirts (designs were by the pin-up artist Alberto Vargas) and high-heels. The women are immediately attracted to the 'real' men from the past (this is not subtle, you could almost see the drool when one of them (Elain, Shirley Patterson) spots a buff and shirtless Herbert Ellis (Rod Taylor)). Outside the underground sanctuary, the world is ruled by 'mutates' - the grotesque results of radiation exposure. In contrast to the social selection in the city, in which generations of caution have resulted in spindly, enervated men, the 'mutates' have selectively bred themselves for brutal ugliness by killing 'normal' children (or keeping them as slaves, which allows an escapee (Deena, Lisa Montell) from the mutate society to be both a translator and a gorgeous love interest for the muscular Ellis). The whole premise is pretty loopy and there is not much to the story as the newcomers try to convince the weedy councillors to assist, and or at least allow, them to attempt to establish a beachhead on the mutate-infested surface. There is also a time-killing side story about one of the impotentates who promptly loses his girlfriend (?) to one of the time-travelling alpha-dogs, and his attempts to frame the temporal interlopers for murder. Despite being a Technicolor/Cinemascope production, the film's special effects are limited: the rocket ship is recycled footage from 'Flight to Mars' (1951), early-on the astronauts are attacked by a couple of very unconvincing giant spiders, and little is seen of the future city beyond some oft-repeated corridor footage. The cast is pretty good for a genre-picture but the script, especially Rod Taylor's lines, is not. The 'climactic battle' with the mutates is underwhelming, especially the classic "you only have to defeat the leader' cop-out. One of a number of time-travel movies from the late '50s and early 60s (the best known being 1961's 'The Time Machine', which also starred Rod Taylor), 'World Without End' film suffers from trying to address a complex 'social science-fiction' premise on a limited budget and with a '50s B-movie adventure aesthetic.

I've been struggling to write a plot synopsis of World Without End and finally decided to take a look at what was posted on IMDb. The posted synopsis from D.A. Kellough is much better than anything I've been able to come up with - "Four astronauts returning from mankind's first mission to Mars enter a time warp and crash on a 26th Century Earth devastated by atomic war. Our heroes meet with hideous mutant cavemen, giant spiders, love-struck beauties in short dresses, and jealous old geezers in sparkly skullcaps as they struggle to save humanity and build a new world." That sums it all up rather nicely.

At first glance, World Without End might seem like any number of the mass produced sci-fi clones that came out in the 50s. And in some ways, you'd be right. The poorly done rocket shots, the bizarre notion of having guns and hatchets on board a spacecraft, and the giant spider attacks are straight out of the 1950s Sci-Fi How To Guide. But for whatever reason, World Without End is more enjoyable than many of its brethren. The cast that features Hugh Marlowe and Rod Taylor is more than capable. The interesting script and the snappy direction of Edward Bernds help to create a nicely paced film with few dead spots. Even the more romantic, schmaltzy scenes don't drag the film down like in other sci-fi movies of the period. All of the "creatures" from Earth's future are adequately explained and (mostly) believable. And the film has a sense of fun about it that I enjoyed. I've got no problem recommending World Without End to fans of 50s sci-fi cinema.

I said that things were adequately explained. Well, for the most part that's true. One thing that's not is the difference between the men and women of Earth's future. The men are pasty, old, bloodless (that's what one of the characters from Earth's past call them) beings without a spark for life. The women, in contrast, are young and beautiful creatures with a need to live and to be loved. Why the difference? It's not really a weakness of the film, just something that nagged at me as I watched the movie.

The more I think about this movie the more I realize that it's kind of "The Time Machine" with a bit of a space travel twist to it - and one of the stars is actually Rod Taylor, who also starred in the definitive movie version of "The Time Machine." It also had Hugh Marlowe, who did a few sci-fi movies in the era, along with westerns and a fair bit of TV work in his later career. It also has a few things in common with "Planet Of The Apes" - which, of course, was still quite a way in the future. This movie gives us four astronauts who somehow on a trip home from Mars (and this is set in 1957) end up being hurtled forward in time and land back on Earth about 500 years in the future. What they discover is a post-apocalyptic earth, an atomic war apparently having erupted in the 22nd century. The dangers of radiation were a staple of 1950's Cold War sci-fi movies, of course, because everyone was afraid of atomic war breaking out. So, as with many sci-fi pictures of this era, we do get mutants - silly looking giant spiders, and cyclopean looking humans on the surface who seem interested in little but attacking whatever they find. But our intrepid astronauts also discover an underground and non-mutant human society (unless the mutation is that all women are beautiful and long-legged and naturally inclined to wear really short skirts - although the most beautiful of the women may have been Lisa Montell as Deena, brought below from the surface, who wore pants.) This society locks itself away from the world above out of fear of the mutants and has really developed a rather passionless and fearful outlook on life - perhaps understandable for people who essentially spend their entire existence cowering in fear. The beautiful women, of course, are quite taken with the handsome muscular men from the past - we're told that even in the 26th century when they haven't seen anything except this rather pathetic collection of the male of the species women can't resist men with "good shoulders." The girls fall in love, jealousy erupts among the underground men, and eventually the men of the past - apparently having accepted that they can't return home - try to "un-wimp" this society and get them back to the surface - where humans belong!

It's a pretty quick movie. Special effects are what would be expected from a 50's sci-fi movie, although the producers chose to spend extra to film this in colour. The women may have been beautiful and the men may have been muscular (or pale and wimpy, depending on which group you're thinking of) but one thing that pretty much everyone in the cast had in common was that they offered somewhat bland performances. It was never really explained how the spaceship travelled forward in time. There was some mythical scientific theory referred to, and the point was made that the ship travelled pretty fast. But ... The speed was originally 15 miles per second (which in terms of space travel is standing still.) Once they hit the phenomenon, they hit 100 miles per second (still standing still in space) and at that speed their instruments froze, so the point was made that since nothing beyond that was recorded they could have been going ten or even a hundred times faster than that - which is still kind of standing still in space. Certainly there seemed nothing to suggest that this little ship could have approached the speed of light - which, basically, it would have had to do to facilitate this kind of time travel.

But I'm getting too technical. They travelled through time. Somehow. That's all that matters. And the four astronauts ultimately seemed to have a positive impact, and the movie does seem to end on an optimistic note. It's OK. In a lot of ways it's standard 50's sci- fi - hokey by today's standards, but entertaining enough at the time. And if you like beautiful women who all seem to have legs that go on forever - well, what's to complain about? (4/10)

A returning spaceship crew of four astronauts(including Rod Taylor & Hugh Marlowe) find themselves sent through a time-warp into the 26th century, where an atomic war has taken place, resulting in a primitive tribe of men on the surface, and a society of intelligent(but tyrannical) people living below. The astronauts discover that they likely can't get home again, and so must sort out this world if they have any hope of surviving(and dodge the odd giant spider!). Good cast, but silly film with a pulp-minded story and clichés. Still, it is interesting to note how this may have influenced "The Time Machine", "Planet Of The Apes", and even "Star Trek"! (Though they greatly improved on these ideas, and made them more imaginative.)

I first remember seeing this movie on TV as a young boy in the early 1960's. From then on I watched it as often as it came on until they stopped showing science fiction movies on that station. For about twenty years or so, I did not see it, and then last year, I found it on video.

Much to my delight, I found that I still enjoyed it as much as ever.

The film concerns the first flight to Mars, and what happens when they start back. Hitting a great turbulence, the ship crash lands on an unknown planet, and the crew meets with many adventures before they discover that they are are on earth in the far future, and they deduce that an atomic war has taken place a couple of centuries prior to their landing.

The film has a good plot, cast and script, and even if the special effects are not what we are capable of today, it still is a movie that is worthwhile seeing.

Like I said before, I still enjoy it even after thirty years.

Men travel to the future and meet beautiful horny women, awful interior sets, and horrendously crappy spiders. They shoot their bazooka at the mutants like it's a heartless video game. Sappy ending. Edward Bernds genius lies with the 3 Stooges, not here. On the plus side it had nice color.

There are many existing comments in regards to this particular film and most of them are quite similar and accurate, therefore there is not too much new substantial information left to be offered. I would just like to express and confirm that this is quite an excellent film for its time [1956]. Do not expect CGI quality graphics and effects -- this was a lower budgeted film, but it did indeed have some very nicely done SFX by its own standards. The wonderful screenplay, rather strong acting [HUGH MARLOWE, ROD TAYLOR, etc.], Color-Cinemascope production, and a fair amount of actual outside location shooting [no cheap soundstaging] combined to make this an absolutely wonderful film [still ranks as one of my favorite 50's Sc-Fi-Flix today!]. OK - for you meticulous purists, there is a large RUBBER SPIDER attack ... but it actually looks fairly decent. Try not to nit-pick, sit back and enjoy a really tight film. And, HEY -- it even has a well-constructed, moral, POSITIVE ending -- which is not sappy! ENJOY!!

"World Without End" was a 1956 Allied Artists release in color, which proved most influential to later efforts like "The Time Travelers" in its depiction of a future ravaged by nuclear war, itself chiefly inspired by Monogram's 1951 "Flight to Mars," from which its brief space footage was cribbed. The H.G. Wells estate considered this to be a ripoff of "The Time Machine" (later promoting supporting cast member Rod Taylor to the title role), but its lack of surprises make it seem quite conventional. A quartet of scientists take off for Mars in 1957 but after a skirmish through time land back on Earth in 2508. The snow covered landscape is mere hours away from the nearest colony, an underground society unaffected by the nuclear holocaust of the 22nd century, with mutated humans a constant threat on the surface. Things go swimmingly for our little band, receiving a warm greeting from all except the scheming Mories (Booth Colman), jealous of how their women are attracted to the newcomers, but by the climax both sides are working above ground for a stronger future. It looks quite colorful and was obviously produced on a budget higher than normal, with props like the muppet spider reused in another Allied Artists effort, "Queen of Outer Space." Top billed Hugh Marlowe kicked off a short career in sci/fi with "The Day the Earth Stood Still", followed by "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" and finally "Castle of Evil" (as one might expect, Rod Taylor proves to be a scene stealer while Nelson Leigh and Christopher Dark make little impression).

In 1957, four astronauts are returning to Earth from mankind's first mission to Mars. They are hit by some cosmic event and land on a strange planet. They are attacked by giant spiders and mutant humanoids. They find a human grave with an end date of 2068. They surmise that they have traveled through time to an Earth of the future. They stumble upon an underground civilization.

This is standard 50s sci-fi borrowing from Verne and Wells. The look and the premise are undeniable B-movie sci-fi. It would be nice to have some cool twist but that's not to be. It's all rather old fashion.

In early Hollywood, movie scripts for any science fiction movie tended to gravitated around a standard formula. There were good guys, a menacing bad guy and of course pretty women. In addition, there was the danger of aliens, monsters or strange creatures. This 1956 science fiction movie had all those ingredients. Interestingly enough, it was Hugh Marlowe, playing the lead character John Borden. Nelson Leigh is brainy Dr. Eldon Galbraithe and Christopher Dark as 'Hank' Jaffe. Surprisingly last was future Mega-Star, Rod Taylor who despite low billing plays athletically handsome Herbert Ellis. Their story is of astronaut Earthmen traveling to Mars, on a routine reconnaissance mission to the red Planet. Unexpectedly, on their return trip, they are thrust into a time vortex and hurled 500 years into the future. There they are confronted with Mutants, Giant spiders and a timid race of humans living below ground, but in a high degree of comfort. A low budget, a slight degree of imagination and a puritanical often cautionary script, made for shallow entertainment. Still with Rod Taylor burgeoning to break out of his scripted shell, the movie displays an entertaining view of future film 'planet of the Apes.' Within the movie itself, there is the addition of much Eye-Candy galore which alone keep in tradition with the 1950's. Enjoy. ***

Not a bad film, really, but it does start to drag after awhile, even for a film of this time period....

Worth a watch if just to see where so many films and TV of the 60's borrowed their source material, the first 20 minutes may as well be "Planet of the Apes"

Plenty of Star Trek episodes appear to have borrowed heavily from this film!

Like many other sci-fi movies from that glorious decade -- the 1950s -- this one begins with some promise. A team of astronauts flying past Mars is suddenly caught in a time-warp which sends them hurtling into ... Well, the set-up is much better than the pay-off which involves the usual futuristic women in short skirts and padded shoulders walking around in front of cheap sets mouthing banal dialog. Rod Taylor bares his chest for a I've-just-come-out-of-the-shower scene which easily qualifies as the best bit of "beefcake" in this entire genre.

I came across this movie, which I had never seen in the 50's. It starred Rod Taylor, who subsequently had great success with "The Time Machine" in 1960, which I remember very well and have a copy of.

I find it intriguing watching this oldie for its simplicity, even a little corny, but gave me much pleasure in taking me back to this era of movie making. Watching it on Blu-Ray now, probably gave me a better reproduction than was available then. I remember many old films that I saw in those years and watched them again recently in Blu-Ray. It surprised me that there were parts that I could not distinguish then and now are clear for all to see. Using modern technology to watch old movies is really a wonderful experience in nostalgia.

I am happy to give this movie a solid 6 for what it is, but the enjoyment I got out of it is worth 8 out of 10.

Not as embarrassingly bad as some of its fifties family of sci-fi but it comes close. The script is semi-intelligent and has fewer inanities and laugh-out-loud, ludicrous lines.

But, it is another silly costumed, cosmetic vision of the distant future. A rubber monster with few moving parts and silly not scary looking "mutates" diminish the rather neat looking spaceship and underground interiors that have that glossy looking germ free environment that so many housewives strive. Cue Mr. Clean.

WWE has a pretension about it that is troublesome and can't help but propagandize itself. Weapons are the main point of contention and mentioned in almost every scene and rightly so. It was, after all, the war weapons that made the whole world almost end. But we have here the makers and users of those weapons arrive to save the day with, you guessed it, weapons.

The mind of the cold war warriors is closed to any alternative to world peace other than MAD (mutually assured destruction). Mad is what these hack warmonger script writers and filmmakers should make you feel.

Let's not ever forget it was sci-fi efforts like this that refused to take the pacifist point of view and presented a lock and load, mine is bigger than yours (bazookas) mentality, that forgave the causers of the "apocalypse", and say...that was great, may I have another.