Godzilla Meets the Castro
A chance to meet the original master of disaster in San Francisco this August 21–23, when Haruo Nakajima, the original man in the big green suit, will visit the Castro Theater as part of the "Godzilla and the Monsters of Mass Destruction!" weekend.
The event is organized by Shock It To Me: San Francisco's Classic Horror Film Festival, and August Ragone, author of the excellent book Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters (Chronicle Books, 2008), and there will be five double bills of original Toho epics showing on the Castro's huge screen.
Tickets will be available at the Castro Theatre box office or through ticketweb.com. Prices will be announced soon at shock-it-to-me.com
Real to Reel: The Death Ray
Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Laboratory, circa 1900.
Ever since 2nd century reports of Archimedes using a heat ray to destroy ships at the Siege of Syracuse, the idea of a massive, controlled force raining down death and destruction has compelled science fiction authors. HG Wells’ Martians wreaked havoc with their heat rays, and the death ray became a staple for ‘B’ movie and serial villains such as Fu Manchu and Ming the Merciless.
It's perhaps surprising, then to discover that from the 1920s through to the 1950s, the death ray, in various forms, was the Holy Grail of weapons development. Spurred by the increased threat of air power following World War I, many claimed to have developed such a weapon, but none managed to prove it.
From Nikola Tesla’s ‘teleforce’ charged particle beam device, to Harry Grindell Matthews’ controversial death ray, some of the finest scientific minds on the planet toiled to develop the ultimate weapon. No million-killing device was developed, but an awful lot of small creatures died in the process.
Death Ray Time Line
1899: Nikola Tesla’s experiments in Colorado Springs cause the local electric company’s generator to cease functioning.
1907: In a letter to The New York Times, Tesla claims that he has built a device capable of “…projecting wave energy to any particular region of the globe.”
1908: On June 30, an explosion flattens 500,000 acres of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Siberia. One theory posits that this was caused by Tesla’s experiments.
Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his Death Ray.
1924: May 20, The New York Times reports that Harry Grindell Matthews, has invented a “diabolical ray.”
May 28, The New York Times runs a story claiming that the Russian engineer Grammachikoff has developed an electromagnetic invention to destroy airplanes.
May 29, The New York Times again: “The inventors of a ‘death ray’ multiply every day.” The names of Professor TF Wall of Sheffield University, England, Prior and Raffe, also from England, and Herr Wulle, ‘chief militarist’ of the Reichstag are mentioned.
June 9, Time magazine reports that “Death Ray” Matthews has turned down £1,000 from the British Air Ministry to prove his invention, and fled to France ahead of an injunction from his backers.
September 5, Edwin R Scott, an inventor from San Francisco, claims he was the first to develop a death ray.
1928: On June 3, The New York Times reports that Dr Graichen of the Siemens Halske Electric Company in Berlin has created a death ray capable of destroying human life.
c1930: The US Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground offers a reward to anyone capable of killing a tethered goat with a death ray, and the British Air Ministry offers £1,000 to anyone using a death ray to kill a sheep at 100 yards.
1934: The July 23 issue of Time magazine and September’s Modern Mechanix report that Dr Antonio Longoria of Cleveland, Ohio has invented a death ray that kills rabbits, dogs and cats instantly, turning their blood to water.
Robert Watson-Watt is asked by the British Air Ministry to look into the feasibility of the death ray. They are unable to prove its worth, but the research leads them to the invention of radar.
1935: February, in Liberty magazine, Tesla discredits the physical possibility of a death ray, but claims that his teleforce invention would have the ability to “Destroy anything, men or machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles.”
August, Modern Mechanix states that French scientist Henri Claudel’s “Rays of Death” will “kill any living thing at a distance of 10 kilometers.”
1936: February, Professor Harry May of England presents Alpha the Robot and a Death Ray Machine at the San Diego Exposition
May 19, The Cornell Daily Sun reports that Henry Fleur of San Francisco, being sued by investors, for failing to deliver his death ray, holds a home demonstration for the judge and jury, and is acquitted after killing a snake, a lizard, and some termites.
1940: February, Popular Science, reports that Dr Longoria had destroyed his death ray “for the good of humanity.”
September, The New York Times reports that Tesla’s teleforce ray is ready, and could be deployed in three months, at a cost of $2,000,000.
1943: January 8, Tesla’s death in New York is reported. Destitute, he was still working on his teleforce weapon – the government seizes his papers, with J Edgar Hoover declaring them top secret.
1946: Dr Albert F Murray reveals that, during the war, he was asked by the British National Defense Research Committee to research the death ray. On December 2, Time magazine reports that he is to continue his work for the US government.
1957: Dr Vladimir Gavreau and his team in France discover the possibilities of infrasonic weapons.
2004: Raytheon is granted an FCC license to demonstrate its Silent Guardian “less-than-lethal directed energy aplication”, aka the Pain Ray.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925
Death Ray Movies
The Death Ray, GB, 1924; “documentary” with Harry Grindell Matthews.
Laughing at Danger, USA 1924; with Richard Talmadge.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925; with Sergei Komarov.
The Mask of Fu Manchu, USA, 1932; With Boris Karloff.
Murder at Dawn, USA, 1932; with Jack Mulhall.
Chandu the Magician, USA, 1932; with Bela Lugosi.
The Whispering Shadow, USA, 1933; with Bela Lugosi.
The Vanishing Shadow, USA, 1934; serial with Onslow Stevens.
The Phantom Empire, USA, 1935; serial with Gene Autry.
The Lost City, USA, 1935; serial with William ‘Stage’ Boyd.
Murder by Television,USA, 1935; with Bela Lugosi.
The Invisible Ray, USA, 1936; with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi.
Sky Racket (aka Flight into Danger), USA, 1937; with Herman Brix.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, USA 1938; serial with Buster Crabbe.
The Fighting Devil Dogs, USA, 1938; serial with Herman Brix.
Flight to Fame, USA, 1938; with Charlie Farrell.
Adventures of Captain Marvel, USA, 1941; serial with Tom Tyler.
Superman, USA, 1941; animated short with a mad scientist, seemingly based on Tesla.
Spook Louder, USA, 1943; short with The Three Stooges.
The Great Alaskan Mystery, USA, 1944; serial with Milburn Stone.
King of the Rocket Men, USA, 1949; serial with Tristram Coffin.
Dick Barton at Bay, GB, 1950; with Don Stannard.
Atlantis, the Lost Continent, USA, 1961; with Anthony Hall.
The Secret of Dr Mabuse (Die Todesstrahlen des Dr Mabuse), West Germany/France/Italy, 1964; with Peter van Eyck.
The Brides of Fu Manchu, GB, 1968; with Christopher Lee.
Death Ray (Il raggio infernale), Italy, 1967; with Gordon Scott.
Death Ray 2000 (aka TR Sloane of the Secret Service), USA, 1979; with Robert Logan.
Kamikaze, France, 1986; with Michel Galabru.
Tesla and the Bell Boy, USA, 2008; with Laurence Cantor.
Further Reading/Sources
Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World, “Part 1 – Looking Backward; 3. Death Rays to DVDs”; David Hambling. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006.
Airminded: Airpower and British Society, 1908–1941 (mostly). “The Death Ray Men”.Website
The Death Ray: The Secret Life of Harry Grindell Matthews; Jonathan Foster. Website
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Alternate Titles: Le Voyage dans la lune (French title); A Trip to Mars (US title)
Country: France
Length: 12’46” / 845ft.
Black and White
Budget: 10,000 francs
Production Company: Star Film
Mise en scène: Georges Méliès
Based on: Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune, 1865), and HG Wells’ The First Men in the Moon (1901),
Camera: Lucien Tainguy
Cast: Georges Méliès (President Barbenfouillis), Victor André, Henri Dalannoy, Delpierre, Farjaux, Kelm, Brunnet, Jehanne D’Alcy, Bleuette Bernon (Phoebe), Lallemand (navy officer), dancers from the Théâtre du Châtelet (navy girls), acrobats from the Folies Bergères (Selenites).
Synopsis (with chapter headings from Méliès’ outline—my comments in italics):
1. The scientific congress at “The Astronomic Club”. The astronomers are gathered in their observatory; President Barbenfouillis enters and lays out his plans for a trip to the Moon.
2. Voting on the trip. The pages. Farewell. After some dissension, the plan is approved and the Professor selects Nostadamus, Alcofrisbas, Omega, Micromegas and Parafaragamus to accompany him, they change and exit.
3. The workshops constructing the projectile. The crew visits the construction and Micromegas falls into a vat of nitric acid.
4. The foundry. The blast furnaces. The casting of the Gun. The crew moves up to the roof and watch as molten metal pours into the mould.
5. The Astronomers board. Following a naval greeting.
6. Loading the Gun. Navy girls push the shell into the breach of the gun and wave at the crowd.
7. The Monster Gun. March of the navy artillery. Fire!!! Saluting the flag.
8. The Moon approaches. Using a similar effect to the one Méliès utilized on The Man with the Rubber Head (1901).
9. Right in the eye. One of the most famous scenes in cinema history.
10. The fall to the moon. Earth light. The shell lands, the astronomers disembark, and watch as the Earth rises.
11. The Plain of Craters. Volcanic Eruption. As the astronomers explore, an explosion throws them to the ground.
12. The dream. The comet. The Great Bear. Phoebe. The double stars, Saturn. Tired from their exertions, the crew sleep, but celestial beings are not happy with the intrusion and Phoebe causes snow to fall.
13. The Snowstorm.
14. 40° below zero. Descent into a lunar crater. Waking up freezing, the astronomers seek shelter under the surface.
15. In the interior of the Moon. The grotto of giant mushroom. In this strange new environment, one of the astronomers plants his umbrella in the ground, only to see it transform and grow into a giant mushroom.
16. Encounter with the Selenites. Heroic battle. Strange creatures appear and threaten the crew, but are dispatched with the blow of an umbrella, however the team is soon outnumbered.
17. Prisoners!
18. The Kingdom of the Moon. The Selenite Army. On his throne, inset with living stars, the Selenite king holds court, however President Barbenfouillis breaks free and kills the king.
19. Flight.
20. Wild pursuit. The astronomers run away, and kill more of the Selenites.
21. The Astronomers reunite with the Shell. Departure from the Moon. The President heroically pulls the shell over a cliff to launch it back to Earth, with one Selenite attached.
22. Vertical Drop in Space. This and the following two scenes happen in rapid cuts unusual for the time.
23. On the open sea. An outdoor scene Méliès shot while on vacation in Normandy.
24. At the bottom of the ocean. A scene filmed in a fish tank.
25. The Rescue. Return to Port. A two-dimensional model shot.
26. Great triumphant procession.
27. Crowning and decorating the heroes of the trip. The astronomers are crowned by the mayor, and the Selenite is paraded in chains and beaten with sticks.
28. Procession of the navy and firefighters.
29. Unveiling of the commemorative statue. The statue depicts Barbenfouillis standing triumphant with his foot crushing the moon (with the shell in its eye). The statue reads “Science” and “Labor Omnia Vincit” (”Hard Work Conquers All”).
30. Public rejoicing.
Review: Star Film #399–411. Méliès’ most celebrated work is a mélange of Verne and Wells, as well as a parody of French colonialism and in a career loaded with superlatives, this the first true science fiction film, is Méliès’ crowning achievement, though he didn't share that opinion, and was quoted as saying: ”…it was considered my masterpiece—I don’t agree.”
Considerably more ambitious than anything else being made at the time, the film was also something of a turn of the century blockbuster, a budget of 10,000 francs meant that the rental fees for the film where a then astronomical 560 francs for black and white, and 1,000 francs for a hand-colored version, with the US market paying $126.75 (very roughly $2,500 in today’s dollars). The French market was convinced by free showings that proved the worth of the enterprise, but Méliès was less fortunate in the USA, where pirated copies distributed by Edison (stolen by a London representative) and Siegmund Lubin (under the title: A Trip to Mars) meant that he never saw a penny – initially flattered by the success, he would open a US office the following year, to protect his copyright. The first purpose-built movie theater in the USA, Thomas Lincoln Tally’s Electric Theater in Los Angeles opened in spring 1902, and its early success was due to screenings of A Trip to the Moon.
It's ironic that the only surviving version of the film until recently, appears to have been one of these bootlegs, which ended after Scene 25. Thankfully the missing celebration scenes were found in a barn in France in 2005, and are now available on DVD.
As well as the source novels, Méliès was likely influenced by the stage success of Adolphe d’Ennery and Jules Verne’s production Voyage à travers l’impossible, which was staged 97 times in Paris from 1882 to 1883, and an unofficial operetta adaptation of the Verne novel, Le voyage dans la Lune, by Jacques Offenbach, which ran first in 1876 and was revived at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 1877. Chapter VI of Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography by Albert A. Hopkins, details the effects produced for an illustrated lecture named “A Trip to the Moon”, that had been popular in Berlin, and included a scene showing “The phenomena of earthlight and sunlight upon the moon”, which may have influenced Scene 10.
One of the pleasures of Méliès more ambitious works, is the discovery of subtle references that, while striking to contemporary viewers, may be lost on an audience watching the films over a century later. The negative response of the heavens to the intruders from Earth in Scene 10 (Saturn was known in mediaeval times as the god of justice), and the Astronomers' attacks on the Selenites, echo the disillusion with rampant colonialism felt in Paris following the revelation that the Voulet-Chinoine Mission of 1899, designed to unify French territories in West Africa, had ended in the slaughter of thousands. It's also worth noting that Phoebe, one of Saturn's moons, had been the first satellite discovered by photographic means in 1899.
Even the names of the expedition group are deep with meaning: President Barbenfouillis (which translates as ”messy beard”) may be a simple parody of Verne’s hero, President Barbicane of the Baltimore Gun Club, but other members of the crew show elements of parody and homage: The original Nostradamus predicted man’s travel to the moon, Alcofrisbas is taken from the fact that François Rabelais wrote his satirical fantasy Pantagruel under the nom de plume Alcofrisbas Nasier), Omega is possibly a reference to Camille Flammarion’s apocalyptic 1893 novel Omega: The Last Days of the World (La Fin du Monde), and Micromégas is a reference to Voltaire’s 1752 short story of that name about a giant from the star system Sirius visiting Earth. Parafaragamus has no known derivation, but is a name Méliès would use again in 1906 in The Mysterious Retort/Alchimiste Parafaragamus ou la cornue infernale).
None of this takes away from from the sheer enjoyment that A Trip to the Moon still provides and the knowledge (detractors’ attacks on Méliès primitive approach to film-making notwithstanding) that this was produced months before Edwin S Porter fired a gun at the audience in The Great Train Robbery (1903), a film generally regarded as the first example of narrative in cinema.
Watch on DVD
Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913). Flicker Alley; DVD Region 1.
The Movies Begin – A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894–1913. Kino Video; DVD Region 1.
Watch on YouTube: Le voyage dans la Lune, Méliès, 1902 (with French commentary, full version but projected too fast, hence the short running time).
Watch on YouTube: Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight (Video) (based on A Trip to the Moon, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who went on to direct Little Miss Sunshine).
Further Reading/Sources
A Trip to the Movies: Georges Méliès, Filmmaker and Magician (1861–1938); Paolo Cherchi Usai (editor). International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House/Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine/Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1991.
Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès; John Frazer. GK Hall & Co., 1979.
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque Française, 2008.
French Film Directors: Georges Méliès; Elizabeth Ezra. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974.
George Méliès' A Trip to the Moon: Influences of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells & Others; Steve Joyce. Web site available here: www.silentsf.com/Project_Melies/index.html
Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography; Albert A Hopkins. Munn & Co., 1897 (available through Google Book Search): http://books.google.com/books.
"Spectacular Attractions: Film in All its Forms"; Dan North, has an excellent shot-by-shot commentary here.
See Also
Excursion to the Moon (1908), remake by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé Frères
The First Men in the Moon (1919)
From the Earth to the Moon (1958)
First Men in the Moon (1964)
"From the Earth to the Moon" (1998) the documentary series features a reconstruction of Méliès’ production, with Tchéky Karyo and Tom Hanks.
Welcome…
…to the blog associated with my book: The Amazing Movie Show: A Contextual History of Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films. The aim of the book is to provide a chronological history, complete with cultural, societal and historical influences, placing the films in the context of their era. From time to time as the book progresses, I'll place excerpts and updates, so check back, and feel free to leave comments.
The Man with the Rubber Head (1901)
Alternate Titles: L’Homme à la tête en caoutchouc (French title); The Man with the India-Rubber Head
Country: France
Length: 2’31”
Black and White
Mise en scène: Georges Méliès
Starring: Georges Méliès
Production Company: Star Film
Synopsis (translated from the Star Film Catalog, 1902, Page 13): A chemist in his laboratory places his own living head on a table then, attaching a rubber pipe and bellows, begins to inflate the head with all his strength. Immediately the head increases in volume, and grimacing, takes on colossal proportions. The chemist fearing the head may burst, opens a tap on the pipe; at once the head deflates and returns to its natural dimension. The chemist then calls his assistant and informs him of his discovery. The assistant, wishing to see for himself, seizes the bellows and starts to blow violently. The head, becoming enormous, bursts with a crash, astounding the two operators. The furious chemist seizes his assistant and throws him out of the window [in actual fact a door].
Review: Star Films #382–383 is one of Georges Méliès’ most celebrated works. The Man with the Rubber Head is a major step up from his earlier trick films, which often relied on simple substitution, or more complex multiple exposures to achieve the desired effect. Here, to achieve the illusion of the expanding head, Méliès created a ramp, which moved towards the camera, with Méliès sitting on a chair, his head sticking through a hole in a table covered in black cloth.
The effect works well, despite a few moments where his head bounces above the table top, and it’s indicative of Méliès ingenious approach that he chose to move himself towards the camera, rather the move the heavy and sensitive camera equipment towards him.
Scoffing at the attempts of his Pathé competitor, Ferdinand Zecca, to replicate this effect, Méliès said in a 1935 interview with Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinémathèque française (printed in the magazine Cinema 71, Paris 1971), “Zecca sought in vain to reproduce the trick by bringing his camera to the severed head; which then overflowed the plane of the table progressively as it enlarged. I did it otherwise, advancing towards the camera, rising up little by little in such a way so that my chin rested on the plane of the table.”
It is likely that Méliès was influenced by a book first published in 1897 named Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography, compiled and edited by Albert A. Hopkins (editor of the Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes and Queries), which was the first publication to expose the workings of stage magic tricks by the likes of Robert-Houdin (whose theater Méliès owned), and others including Buatier de Kolta (whose vanishing lady act formed the basis of Méliès' first film), and Maskelyne and Cooke. One chapter is entirely devoted to “Photographic Diversions”, including “Photography upon a Black Ground” and “Photographing a Human Head upon a Table”.
Set design and painting are well up to Méliès usual standards, with a prominent Star Film logo on the left, which was intended to combat copyright theft (mainly by Philadelphia-based entrepreneur Siegmund Lubin), unfortunately this proved unsuccessful and two years later, Georges’ brother, Gaston (who previously ran a shoe company in Charing Cross Road, London with brother Henri), opened a Star Film office at 204 East 38th Street, New York (now home to an aquarium store and gym), with the stated aim: “energetically to pursue all counterfeiters and pirates.” (Star Film Catalogue, New York, 1903).
Watch on DVD
Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913). Flicker Alley; DVD Region 1.
Watch on YouTube: Georges Méliès - L'homme a la tête en caoutchouc (1901)
Further Reading/Sources
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque française, 2008.
Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès; John Frazer. GK Hall & Co., 1979.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974.
French Film Directors: Georges Méliès; Elizabeth Ezra. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Georges Méliès: Father of Fantasy Film; David Robinson. British Film Institute, Museum of the Moving Image, 1993.
Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography; Albert A Hopkins. Munn & Co., 1897 (available through Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/books.
