When Worlds Collide (1951 Film) - Reception

Reception

Adilifu Nama, Cal State professor of Pan African studies, regards the collision between the two worlds as a type of metaphor for the then-ongoing post-colonial confrontation between the developed nations and the third world. He views the film as confirming a form of "whites only" racial segregation found in the United States during the period, as inferred by "the visual absence of blackness". As evidence, he notes that only "white people" survive the disaster. Thus the film "overtly advocates white racial homogeneity as a requirement for the preservation of the American way of life".

Freelance writer Melvin E. Matthews calls the film a "doomsday parable for the nuclear age of the '50s". Emory University physics professor Sidney Perkowitz notes that this film is the first in a long list of movies where "science wielded by a heroic scientist confronts a catastrophe". He calls the special effects exceptional. Librarian and filmographer Charles P. Mitchell was critical of the "scientific gaffes that dilute the storyline", as well as a "failure to provide consistent first class effects". He pointed out that there were inconsistencies in the script, such as the disappearance of Dr. Bronson in the second half of the film, and the story of what happened with the sister spacecraft being built by other nations. He summarizes by saying that, "the large number of plot defects are annoying and prevent this admirable effort from achieving top-drawer status".