# Identify this silent SciFi film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558 "2006-03-16T03:11:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/1 "2006-03-16T03:11:56Z")
I remember seeing a TV special on early film. I featured a silent science fiction film from the 1920s. I don’t remember the title. Set in the 1960s it involved America and (united) Europe going to war. Supposedly it was groungbreaking in terms of the future it portrayed and featured a tunnel between Britain and France, television, and female conscription. Did this film actually exist? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/2 "2006-03-16T03:23:58Z")
Are you maybe thinking of [Things to Come](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028358/)? Though it wasn’t silent. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/3 "2006-03-16T04:29:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Are you maybe thinking of [Things to Come](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028358/)? Though it wasn’t silent. No, that’s not it. It might have been a European film. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/4 "2006-03-16T05:04:20Z")
“Le Tunnel sous La Manche” (English title: “Tunnelling the English Channel”) (1907) 20 minutes Probably not it. This is about the the PM and the French president going to bed and dreaming of a disaster occurring in the tunnel, then scrapping plans to go forward with the project when they wake up. Author’s note: “Even today [1984] the proposition is regularly reappraised, but beyond film and fiction versions it is doubtful that we shall ever see it.” “The Great German North Sea Tunnel” (UK, 1914) This is about a German invasion of the UK using a tunnel. However, this film is considered lost, and little other information exists about it. “Der Tunnel” (Germany, 1933) This tunnel connects Europe and the US, but there’s no war involved. “The Tunnel” (UK, 1935) This tunnel connects the UK and the US, but still no war. All information from “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies.” Phil Hardy. 1984 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/5 "2006-03-16T06:06:10Z")
Funny, I was just reading a review of this yesterday. It’s the British movie [_High Treason_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0018996/) (1928), which was released in talkie and silent versions; the British Film Institute has copies of both. The year in which the story is set is never specified. [More here](http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/hightreason.html). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/6 "2006-03-16T06:21:13Z")
Oh, there’s also a Hollywood movie with similar themes, [_Men Must Fight_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0024325/) (1933). This has been shown on Turner Classic Movies. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/7 "2006-03-16T17:25:04Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Funny, I was just reading a review of this yesterday. It’s the British movie [_High Treason_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0018996/) (1928), which was released in talkie and silent versions; the British Film Institute has copies of both. The year in which the story is set is never specified. > > [More here](http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/hightreason.html). Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/8 "2006-03-16T17:51:30Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#): > > “Le Tunnel sous La Manche” . . .This is about the the PM and the French president going to bed . . . I _would_ like to see _that_ film. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/9 "2006-03-16T19:46:52Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Funny, I was just reading a review of this yesterday. It’s the British movie [_High Treason_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0018996/) (1928), which was released in talkie and silent versions; the British Film Institute has copies of both. The year in which the story is set is never specified. > > [More here](http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/hightreason.html). When the NFT last ran the BFI’s silent print of it a couple of years ago, the screening was packed, yet the general feeling amongst those of us there was that it was rather disappointing. The fact that you only ever see that same still of the impressive model of a futuristic Charing Cross Station hides the fact that the rest of the production gets pretty ropey. Nor has the plot dated at all well. As I’ve pointed out on the Dope before, the story of Noel Pemberton Billing’s libel trial during WWI - as mentioned in the link; the underlying issue was really his claim that there was a vast, German sponsored conspiracy of lesbians, including Margot Asquith, infiltrating the country - is entertainingly told by Philip Hoare in _Wilde’s Last Stand_ (Duckworth, 1997). Hoare places the plot of _High Treason_ as happening in 1950, though I don’t remember whether that was spelt out in the version I saw. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/10 "2006-03-16T20:30:20Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I _would_ like to see _that_ film. Well, they _do_ have a man date from the people. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/11 "2006-03-16T22:04:07Z")
aaaaaarrrrrrrgh. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/12 "2006-03-17T00:53:37Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > Hoare places the plot of _High Treason_ as happening in 1950, though I don’t remember whether that was spelt out in the version I saw. To complicate matters, out of curiosity I dug out the NFT programme notes. It quotes at length from a contemporary review of the film in _The Bioscope_ from 1929 that states that it takes place in 1940. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-silent-scifi-film/348558/13 "2006-03-17T01:00:02Z")
As does my copy of the aforementioned “Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies.”