# Pre-1930 science fiction movies? (Paging Eve) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684 "2004-05-18T00:43:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/1 "2004-05-18T00:43:31Z")
Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=256699), I am wondering about the state of science fiction movies prior to 1930. A couple come to mind right away, _Metropolis_ and _A Trip to the Moon_. I’m sure there’s got to be more. Anybody got a list? a source? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/2 "2004-05-18T00:57:27Z")
Here are a few more for starters (almost all unseen by me): _Aelita_ (1924) _The Astronomer’s Dream_ (1898, Méliès) _Conquest of the Pole_ (1912, Méliès) _Frau im Mond_ (1929, Fritz Lang) _The Impossible Voyage_ (1904, Méliès) _The Lost World_ (1925) _The Mysterious Island_ (1929) _Paris qui Dort_ (1925, Rene Clair) _The “?” Mororist_ (1906) _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_ (1916) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/3 "2004-05-18T02:19:17Z")
I was going to say _Just Imagine_, but I see that actually came out in 1930. So ignore this post. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/4 "2004-05-18T02:33:59Z")
Edison’s version of _Frankenstein_? [_The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010323/) (1920? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/5 "2004-05-18T02:35:23Z")
Willis O’Brien made quite a few short “prehistoric” films, like **RFD 10,000 BC** , not to mention **The Ghost of Slumber Mountain**. There was th 1910 Edison Company version of **Frankenstein** **Archive Guy** actiually mentions a lot of the ones I would have. I own several of these. Restored versions of **Metropolis** and **The LOst World** are available on DVD, and well worth the cost (the restoration of TLW makes it about 95% complete!) The silent versions of **20,000 Leagues** is pretty good (and includes a lot of The Mysterious Island), while \*\*The Mysterious Island[/B isn’t at all faithful, and is mostly a curiousity. **Die Frau im Mond** has ruly impressive scenes of a rocket launch – it looks as if pre-War Germany already had Peenemunde in place, and Lang just filmed the result. Some of Winsor McCay’s early cartoons are pretty much SF. Even though they are part f the “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend” series, revealed as nightmares at the end, they hit on SF ideas and images, often for the frst time in cinema. **The Giant Pet** is the very first instance of the Giant Whatsit stalking through the City, long before King Kong or Godzilla did so. **The Flying House** gives us interplanetary travel and a moving starfield. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/6 "2004-05-18T02:38:20Z")
Thanks for the info so far. I have the restored _Metropolis_ (as well as one the really crappy washed copies). How hard is it to find the silent films? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/7 "2004-05-18T03:30:11Z")
> [@](#): > > How hard is it to find the silent films? Pretty hard f you look for them in just the video stores (although tht’s what I mostly do). You can order them online through Amazon or through specialty houses. Blackhawk films specialized in silent flicks. They used to sell them on celluloid, then on videotape (my copy of 20,000 Leagues is from them), and I would think they had a DVD market by now. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/8 "2004-05-18T07:07:48Z")
Not really SciFi but there was a 1925 version of _Wizard of Oz_, starring Dorothy Dwan. How about _Nosferatu_? Again, not really SciFi though. I just threw it in because of the ref to _Frankenstein_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/9 "2004-05-18T14:22:06Z")
I think Eve only responds to pages if you first sacrifice a Keanu Reeves DVD and then leave an offering (e.g. an ashtray from Fatty Arbuckles’ guest room, Blanche Sweet’s handbag, etc.). Even then you may only ask one question, she will only answer in rhyme and you cannot make eye contact. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/10 "2004-05-18T15:40:37Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I think Eve only responds to pages if you first sacrifice a Keanu Reeves DVD and then leave an offering (e.g. an ashtray from Fatty Arbuckles’ guest room, Blanche Sweet’s handbag, etc.). Even then you may only ask one question, she will only answer in rhyme and you cannot make eye contact. Everyone already answered so much better than I could have . . . Though I _would_ like Blanche Sweet’s handbag . . . ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/11 "2004-05-18T15:59:53Z")
Do any of these movie include footage of 1920’s style dea… erk… no… must… not… continue… sentence. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/12 "2004-05-18T16:17:32Z")
> [@Severian](#): > > Do any of these movie include footage of 1920’s style dea… erk… no… must… not… continue… sentence. Actually, this is a context where that line could actually be used seriously. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/13 "2004-05-18T16:19:04Z")
> [@Severian](#): > > Do any of these movie include footage of 1920’s style dea… erk… no… must… not… continue… sentence. Actually, _[Paris qui Dort](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015214/)_ is alternately known as **The Crazy Ray** or **The Invisible Ray**. I’ve never seen it, but Rene Clair’s _The Italian Straw Hat_ from a few years later is among the greatest of silent films, so it might be worth checking out (sounds like fun, too). ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/14 "2004-05-18T23:44:33Z")
There’s also [High Treason](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018996/) from 1928. The NFT programmed it a few months ago as part of their big season on British films of the 1920s and it proved a popular screening. I suspect this has less to do with its critical reputation - which has always been poor - and more to do with the occasional reproduction of a still from it showing a futuristic version of London, so that people were interested to see what the rest of the film looks like. All fairly watchable, but that’s about it. It was based on a play by Noel Pemberton Billing, whose earlier political career is central to Philip Hoare’s entertaining _Wilde’s Last Stand_ (Duckworth, 1997). The man thought WWI England was being overrun by a secret German conspiracy of lesbians. ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1930-science-fiction-movies-paging-eve/245684/15 "2004-05-18T23:55:30Z")
Most of these movies should be public domain, no? Are any of them available anywhere for downloading?