ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

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QUEST FOR LOVE (1971)

Directed by Ralph Thomas
starring Tom Bell * Joan Collins * Denholm Elliott

Here is a quaint little Sci-Fi picture from Britain which combines the intriguing concept of parallel worlds with a nice love story.

It's based on a short story by John Wyndham (also responsible for The Day of the Triffids and The Village of the Damned) and gets all the basics of such a proposition correctly — at least, in theory; as of this date, it's all just theory and the existence of 'other Earths' has yet to be proven.

The main character, played by Bell, is a physicist who gets transported to another Earth during an experiment very quickly in the story (this wastes no time in getting started; within 10 minutes, he's on the other world).

On this other Earth, history diverged sometime after World War I — just before World War 2 began on our Earth, in fact. There was no 2nd World War on this parallel Earth, with the result that this alternate Earth has less scientific advances (men have not yet walked on the moon), but they've endured less man-made cataclysms (no Vietnam War).

All these snippets of alternate Earth info are tantalizing to fans of such speculative science fiction, but the story throws in a very romantic subplot into the mix. I may just prefer the British manner in presenting romance, but I think this tale manages to impress anyone with just a bit of the romantic in him/her.

The fantasy sci-fi picture Somewhere in Time (80) with Chris Reeve & Jane Seymour comes to mind as a comparison but, to me, it's not even a contest: when Joan Collins first walks into the room, I was swept away on the spot.

I also like Bell's performance as the hero: he sort of stumbles along into this fantastic journey which he's been flung into and eventually embraces the cosmic appeal of what fate has given him — an incredible gift, it turns out.

He's quite intelligent, being a physicist, but his counterpart on this parallel Earth, whose place he has taken, was an unscrupulous playwright. Bell has to adapt to his new role after some awkward moments, including playing the part of a husband (Bell's character was not married on his own Earth).

There are no lengthy action scenes which we've become accustomed to in later films. Instead there are interesting discussions and intriguing questions, though Bell does a whole lot of running during the last 10 minutes of the film.

____________________The back cover of the old VHS box

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This sub-genre of science fiction, parallel worlds, has not been tackled very often in film. In fact, probably the most famous later example of such was on TV: the Sliders series, which ran on a couple of different channels throughout the 2nd half of the nineties.

There was also the film The One (2001), which functioned more as an action vehicle for Jet Li, the little known film The Duplicate (2002), a couple of versions of The Lathe of Heaven, which involved more the restructuring of reality rather than visiting other realities, the TV movie Fatherland (1994) and a few episodes of other Sci-Fi TV series, such as The Parallel and Mirror Image of the old Twilight Zone show, as well as the famous Mirror, Mirror episode of the original Star Trek.

A remake of Quest For Love was on British TV a couple of years ago, titled Random Quest — the original title of the story.

Finally, Marvel Comics has gone crazy in the past decade with the creation of alternate versions of its famed characters in alternate worlds/universes, which make up a 'multiverse' rather than a standard universe. This theory of a multiverse is gaining prominence in real-life theoretical science.

SEE ALSO: a new sci-fi series came out on the Sci-Fi Channel which tackles this parallel world concept: Charlie Jade, a British TV series which aired across the pond in 2005.

[Bud Brewster]

And my own review for this one -- written back in the middle 1990s and posted here because Bog's review hasn't generated a single reply in well over a year -- reads like this.

(Just consider this a long "bump".)
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From sci-fi author John Wyndham's story entitled "Random Quest" comes this interesting and strange tale of parallel universes.

Tom Bell finds himself in an alternate reality, a world ninety-nine per cent similar to the world as he knows it. The one per cent difference lies in Bell himself; in the new reality his parallel self is a despicable man, hated by his own wife (Joan Collins) -- with whom the new Bell soon falls in love.

At first she's reluctant to believe her husband is a changed man, but he eventually wins her over. But a tragic accident ends her life, and when Bell reverts back to his original universe he must find Collins and prevent her death.

A fascinating and original concept, used to good advantage by director Ralph Thomas.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

I just love good old Watchfree.to!

Tonight I found out that theVideo.me has a download of Quest for Love, a movie I've wanted to see for decades!

Bulldogtrekker and I watched our downloads while chatting on Facebook. The movie is pretty good, although it's a little hazy on exactly how the two versions of the main character managed to switch "universes". And it moves along a little too fast in some parts, but a bit too slow in others.

However, all in all it's well worth seeing.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[johnnybear]

This is a very interesting film, and one that took bloody ages to come out on DVD!

The strange experiment which catapults Tom Bell into an alternate reality only happens the once and while his writer self from the other world remains in a coma on our world, when our Tom Bell gets to discover the rich and seedy life his counterpart has led up until that point with many people wanting to share his success and his bed.

But our Tom rebukes them because he only has eyes for Joan!

Sadly things don't go as planned and our tom wakes up in our world in hospital months later and sets out to recreate the experiment or find the alternate Joan!

Great John Wyndham adventure!

JB

[Bud Brewster]

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I should have posted this on Valentines Day! Here's dinner and a movie, compliments of All Sci-Fi.

Bon appétit


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)