This film begins at a remote observatory in South Africa where an astrologer by the name of "Doctor Emery Bronson" (Hayden Rorke) makes a terrifying discovery in which a star called Bellus is directly on a collision course with the earth. He also observes that a small planet he calls Zyra is orbiting Bellus as well. Desperately needing a second opinion, he hires a local airplane pilot by the name of "Dave Randall" (Richard Derr) to take his research to another noted astronomer named "Dr. Cole Hendron" (Larry Keating) in New York with the stipulation that Dave Randall does not release his findings to anyone else. Unfortunately, upon his arrival there Dr. Hendron confirms the analysis of his noted colleague and estimates that the world-and every living thing on it-will cease to exist in about 8 months. There is, however, a small chance that a few people will be able to survive if they can build and launch a rocket ship within the small timeframe they are given to the planet Zyra. But everything has to be carefully coordinated and nothing can go wrong. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good science-fiction film which follows the book of the same title pretty well. Admittedly, the actors weren't exactly top-notch but they performed well enough all things considered. I should also add that this film was clearly dated so some viewers might not be able to appreciate it as much as others. Be that as it may, while it definitely has the feel of a grade-B movie, it manages to pass the time reasonably well and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of When Worlds Collide
