Transatlantic Tunnel (1935)

Transatlantic Tunnel (AKA “The Tunnel”)
Directed by Maurice Elvey
1935/UK
Gaumont British Picture Corporation
First viewin

Richard ‘Mack’ McAllan: There are bigger things than money.
Airways Magnate: We don’t deal in ’em.

It is the near future (as of 1935).  The Channel Tunnel was completed in 1940 and a Bahamas-Miami Tunnel is profitable.  Television is everywhere and people talk by “Televisor” even from their seats in airplanes.  Intrepid American engineer Richard “Mack”  McAllan (Richard Dix)  proposes a tunnel to link England with America an accomplishment that would “unite the English-speaking peoples” and “bring World Peace”, made possible by a new giant radium drill  He convinces a group of greedy industrialists to back his plan and sets to work on the multi-year project.  His obsession with the project leads him to neglect his wife (Madge Evans) and son and leave them in charge of his best friend and fellow engineer (Leslie Banks).  Mack’s publicity duties have him frequently on the arm of a key investor’s lovely daughter (Helen Vinson).  No spoilers here but illnesses, mass deaths, and a volcano cannot deter Mack’s determination to complete his task.  World Peace is more important than the problems of a few little people!  With C. Aubrey Smith as a magnate, George Arliss as the British Prime Minister, and Walter Huston as the U.S. President.

I think its a lot of fun to look at the future from the perspective of the past and I came into this movie with high hopes. I have to admit that it delivered in terms of the special effects and art decoration.  The problem is that the story gets bogged down in the same old plot points that are in every second non-science fiction film of this era.  Far too much time is spent on the love rectangle between the engineer, his wife, his best friend and the magnate’s beautiful daughter.  Not only that but this sub-plot is milked for every bit of melodrama that can be wrung out of it.  We also meet a second problem which is that Richard Dix apparently figured he didn’t need to work on his acting any more after he won the Best Actor Oscar for Cimmaron.  He is pretty awful.

Also, I never did figure out how exactly the tunnel was going to lead to World Peace or how the engineers got around their volcano problem.  I could have overlooked my questions, though, if we had more tunnel and less tears.

Clip – opening