When Worlds Collide

Planets connect with a dull thud in this rehash of an earlier science-fiction thriller made last year by the same producer. There are some shots of a familiar-looking space ship and rumors of an impending collision between the earth and Bellus, but the picture spends most of its time on a cold love triangle between a hot flyer, a hot woman scientist, and a drab doctor. Unfortunately the picture never shows how the world would act as Doomsday approached.

"When Worlds Collide" does have its great moment, however; it comes when a preliminary planet whizzes by near the earth and raises general hell with the tides. Enormous glaciers crash into the sea, earthquakes rumble, and, in a particularly satisfying scene, New York City is destroyed and inundated by the Atlantic ocean. The actual collision between earth and the second planet is shown as a mild pink blip on the TV screen of an escaping rocket ship.

After a milk-run space trip to the planet Xyra (during which the rocket's passengers loll around in armchairs and hold hands to break the monotony), starry-eyed couples disembark to find a city of pink wigwams. This is where a really interesting and imaginative movie could have started--but the characters in this one just kiss and fade out.