Main Cast: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, Groucho Marx, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Harpo Marx, Dennis Hopper, Chico Marx
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) debating if humankind should be allowed to continue or be exterminated once and for all. Both men present examples of human behavior at its best and worst, including Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Peter Lorre as Nero, Edward Everett Horton as Sir Walter Raleigh, and Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx as, respectively, Peter Minuit, Sir Isaac Newton, and a monk (yes, the producers had the daring and vision to cast the Marx Brothers without having them play any scenes together). The Story of Mankind proved to be the last film for both Ronald Colman and Hedy Lamarr; it was also the last time the three Marx Brothers appeared in the same film, though the individual Marxes appeared in a few films following this. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Like Allen's previous two films, it features vast amounts of stock footage, in this case, battles and action scenes culled from previous Warner Bros. costume films, coupled with cheaply-shot close-ups of actors on much smaller sets. It was the last motion picture to feature the three Marx Brothers, but individually in separate scenes, and the last film of star Ronald Colman and of character actor Franklin Pangborn.
Scientists have developed a weapon, called the "Super H-bomb", which if detonated will wipe out the human race entirely. A "High Tribunal" in "The Great Court of Outer Space" is called upon to decide whether divine intervention should be allowed to stop the bomb's detonation. The Devil (Vincent Price), who goes by the name of Mr. Scratch, prosecutes mankind while the Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) defends it.
Price and Colman are allowed to take the tribunal to any period of time to present evidence for mankind's salvation or damnation. They take the tribunal from prehistory through Egyptian, Greco-Roman, medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment and modern times, looking at historical figures played by a host of guest stars.
