Alexander Korda's lavish screen production of an H.G. Wells story was one of the most celebrated science fiction films ever made, with its stunning futuristic sets and its uncannily accurate forecast of World War II. The film was criticized from the right for its anti-fascist ideology and from the left for its vision of what was considered essentially a technocratic dictatorship “practically identical with certain tenets of the fascist system” (New Theatre Magazine, 1936). Director William Cameron Menzies was also a noted art director.