Nearly fifty years before artificial wombs would seriously enter the mainstream scientific research, Ralph Nelson’s Embryo featured the prospect of developing a baby in one. The sci-fi drama film with horror elements presented the theme of embryonic development outside the natural biological uterus while foreboding terrifying consequences for pursuing such a line of research.

Written by Anita Doohan and Jack W. Thomas, Embryo makes a case for caution against bypassing nature along similar literary traditions that go back to Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. The story starts with Dr. Paul Holliston (Rock Hudson), an expert researcher in genetics, who hits a pregnant dog with his car one night. He is able to save one of the dog’s unborn pups by transferring it to an artificial...

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