TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL

TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL (vt THE TUNNEL). Maurice Elvey, dir. UK: Gaumont-British Picture Corp., 1935. Kurt Siddmak, script (IMDb lists L. du Garde Peach, writing as DuGarde Peach, and Clemence Dane).

The tunnel is made possible in part by "the new radium drill." See for a Modernist mise en scène in which a giant machine is generally good; note also the high-speed tunnel-trains, and the many internal viewing screens—including what might be a giant TV screen for the private performance of a symphony—significant for what G. Stewart has called "The 'Videology' of Science Fiction" (q.v. under FilmCrit). Consider as a possible gauge of the change between high-Modernist 1935 and arguably po-mo recent work not just the attitude toward The Machine but the idea that a large engineering project and building something are good and worthy of a film.