Captive Women
Entry updated 4 April 2017. Tagged: Film.
Film (1952; vt 3000 AD UK; vt 1,000 Years from Now). American Pictures/RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Produced by Jack Pollexfen, Aubrey Wiseberg and Albert Zugsmith. Directed by Stuart Gilmore. Written by Pollexfen and Wiseberg. Special effects by Irving Block. Cast includes Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Stuart Randall, Ron Randell, Gloria Saunders and William Schallert. 64 minutes. Black and white.
Long after nuclear World War Three, Robert (Clarke) and Ruth (Field) are about to be married in the ruins of New York during a brief interlude in ongoing hostilities between their tribe, the Norms, and the rival tribe the Mutates. But raiders from the Upriver People attack through the Hudson Tunnel, capturing Ruth and with several other women. The warring tribes must put aside their differences to rescue the women, a joint effort which takes up rather little time in this short film. With the women recovered, there are improved prospects for a more peaceful tribal coexistence as the film concludes.
The original title for this minor Post-Holocaust film was reportedly 1,000 Years From Now; RKO owner Howard Hughes ordered the change to the more sensational title. The ruins of New York are briefly shown in matte paintings by Block. Captive Women is of some historical importance as possibly the first sf film to consider what the world might become some time after a nuclear war. In this respect it is a precursor to Mad Max (1979) and similar films popular in the 1980s. It is perhaps the most obscure of actor Robert Clarke's sf films. [GSt]
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