L'Histoire de l'humanité (1957)
DrameFantastiqueScience-Fiction
L'argument science-fictionnel est mince: un conseil des anciens intersidéral est réunit pour juger l'humanité, prétexte à un scénario lourdingue qui se résume à un catalogue de tableaux historiques statiques et stéréotypes. Tout le monde y passe : Cléopâtre, Néron, Aristote Jeanne d'arc, Leonard de Vinci, Christophe Colomb, à l'occasion de scénettes fauchées, enrichies de stock-shots, qui hésitent entre le pompeux et le comique, le film assenant sans finesse son message chrétien. Peut être peut-on déjà voir chez Irwin Allen, futur producteur de "la tour infernale" et de "l'aventure du Poséidon", un attrait pour les grandes catastrophes. Les quelques curiosités qu'offre la pléthorique distribution (la prestation amusante de Vincent Price, distingué et ironique tel qu'à l'accoutumée, des Marx Brothers sur le retour et un jeune Denis Hopper qui interprète Napoléon) ne suffisent pas à sauver le film de sa pesanteur et le spectateur de l'ennui.
Directeur: Irwin Allen
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Ronald Colman as The Spirit of Man |
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Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc |
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Groucho Marx as Peter Minuit |
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Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton |
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Chico Marx as Monk |
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Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra |
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Agnes Moorehead as Queen Elizabeth I |
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Vincent Price as Mr. Scratch / The Devil |
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Peter Lorre as Nero |
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Charles Coburn as Hippocrates |
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Cedric Hardwicke as High Judge |
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Cesar Romero as Spanish Envoy |
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John Carradine as Khufu |
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Dennis Hopper as Napoleon Bonaparte |
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Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette |
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Helmut Dantine as Marc Antony |
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Edward Everett Horton as Sir Walter Raleigh |
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Reginald Gardiner as William Shakespeare |
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Marie Windsor as Josephine Bonaparte |
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George E. Stone as Waiter |
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Cathy O'Donnell as Early Christian Woman |
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Franklin Pangborn as Marquis de Varennes |
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Melville Cooper as Major Domo |
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Henry Daniell as Pierre Cauchon - Bishop of Beauvais |
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Francis X. Bushman as Moses |
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Jim Ameche as Alexander Graham Bell |
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Nick Cravat as Devil's Apprentice |
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David Bond as Early Christian |
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Dani Crayne as Helen of Troy |
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Richard H. Cutting as Court Attendant |
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Anthony Dexter as Christopher Columbus |
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Melinda Marx as Early Christian Child |
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Don Megowan as Early Man |
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Austin Green as Abraham Lincoln |
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Reginald Sheffield as Julius Caesar |
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Bobby Watson as Adolf Hitler |
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Creighton Hale as Heavenly Judge |
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Angelo Rossitto as Dwarf in Nero's Court |
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Marvin Miller as Amarna |
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Ziva Rodann as Egyptian Concubine |
| Writing | Irwin Allen | Writer |
| Writing | Charles Bennett | Writer |
| Writing | Henrik Van Loon | Novel |
| Production | Irwin Allen | Associate Producer |
| Production | Irwin Allen | Producer |
| Production | George E. Swink | Associate Producer |
| Camera | Nicholas Musuraca | Director of Photography |
| Editing | Gene Palmer | Editor |
| Directing | Irwin Allen | Director |
| Sound | Paul Sawtell | Original Music Composer |
