Set in New York City in the far future year of 1980, this was the first science fiction film made as either a talkie or a musical. It stars the little remembered vaudeville comedian El Brendel as a man who is struck by lightning in 1930 and revived 50 years later. I can't say that I found either him or the film particularly funny. The biggest chuckles were provided by Frank Albertson and Marjorie White, who was sadly killed in a car crash in 1935. The songs are pretty forgettable or just...odd. They're not exactly Cole Porter or Irving Berlin. However, I did like the one about drinking which is one of several digs at Prohibition in the film. Of the 386 films that I watched since January 2014, this is the oldest as well as being the oldest talkie that I have ever seen, though I have seen several older silent films.
Only 19 years old at the time, Maureen O'Sullivan, one of Ireland's first film stars, is the female lead and the best actor in the film. She and Albertson were really the only ones in the film to have careers worth mentioning afterwards. The acting is generally pretty bad. That may have something to do with the fact that sound films were still very new in 1930 and actors were learning the new craft of acting in such films but I've seen several others from 1931 to 1934 where the acting was considerably better so that excuse only goes so far. Maureen O'Sullivan and Joyzelle Joyner were the only actors in the film who were still alive in the real 1980, which was the year that the latter died. The director David Butler - who later directed several Shirley Temple films and "Calamity Jane" - died in June 1979 so he just missed out on seeing whether the film's vision of the future would come true or not. However, by that stage, it was a pretty safe bet that it wouldn't! I loved the design of the New York of 1980, which was presumably inspired by "Metropolis". The footage was later reused in the "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" serials while the very impressive looking "rocket plane" used to travel to Mars was later seen as Dr. Zarkov's rocket ship in the "Flash Gordon" ones, as were some of the props and costumes. Speaking of Mars, I loved the design of the planet too. I think that this could very well have been the first on screen depiction of a manned mission to Mars. The scenes on Mars are pretty bizarre, it has to be said, but they're good fun and probably the best part of the film.
Incidentally, Maureen O'Sullivan's family and mine go way back! Well, sort of. I'm not lifelong best friends with her grandson Ronan Farrow or anything. My great-grandfather was a private in the Connaught Rangers before, during and after World War I and his commanding officer was her father Captain Charles O'Sullivan. They served together in India and the Western Front. When in Ireland, they were stationed in Boyle, County Roscommon, her hometown, and my great-grandfather remembered her playing around the barracks as a little girl. That means that I am only three degrees of separation from a 1930s Hollywood star.
Overall, this is not a great film by any means but it's fun, even it isn't particularly funny, and has an important place in sci-fi history as the genre's first sound film. However, it did little for it on the big screen as, outside of some of the Universal Monsters films which were more horror orientated in any event, there were hardly any sci- fi feature films (as opposed to serials) made in the 1930s or 1940s. It was not until the 1950s that the genre began to have an impact in Hollywood.
Only 19 years old at the time, Maureen O'Sullivan, one of Ireland's first film stars, is the female lead and the best actor in the film. She and Albertson were really the only ones in the film to have careers worth mentioning afterwards. The acting is generally pretty bad. That may have something to do with the fact that sound films were still very new in 1930 and actors were learning the new craft of acting in such films but I've seen several others from 1931 to 1934 where the acting was considerably better so that excuse only goes so far. Maureen O'Sullivan and Joyzelle Joyner were the only actors in the film who were still alive in the real 1980, which was the year that the latter died. The director David Butler - who later directed several Shirley Temple films and "Calamity Jane" - died in June 1979 so he just missed out on seeing whether the film's vision of the future would come true or not. However, by that stage, it was a pretty safe bet that it wouldn't! I loved the design of the New York of 1980, which was presumably inspired by "Metropolis". The footage was later reused in the "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" serials while the very impressive looking "rocket plane" used to travel to Mars was later seen as Dr. Zarkov's rocket ship in the "Flash Gordon" ones, as were some of the props and costumes. Speaking of Mars, I loved the design of the planet too. I think that this could very well have been the first on screen depiction of a manned mission to Mars. The scenes on Mars are pretty bizarre, it has to be said, but they're good fun and probably the best part of the film.
Incidentally, Maureen O'Sullivan's family and mine go way back! Well, sort of. I'm not lifelong best friends with her grandson Ronan Farrow or anything. My great-grandfather was a private in the Connaught Rangers before, during and after World War I and his commanding officer was her father Captain Charles O'Sullivan. They served together in India and the Western Front. When in Ireland, they were stationed in Boyle, County Roscommon, her hometown, and my great-grandfather remembered her playing around the barracks as a little girl. That means that I am only three degrees of separation from a 1930s Hollywood star.
Overall, this is not a great film by any means but it's fun, even it isn't particularly funny, and has an important place in sci-fi history as the genre's first sound film. However, it did little for it on the big screen as, outside of some of the Universal Monsters films which were more horror orientated in any event, there were hardly any sci- fi feature films (as opposed to serials) made in the 1930s or 1940s. It was not until the 1950s that the genre began to have an impact in Hollywood.