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Bud Brewster
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 Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:16 pm Post subject: Transatlantic Tunnel (1935) |
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(The British poster for this movie is deadly dull. This Spanish one, however, it great. I've seen this fairly often recently. The foreign posters are better than the American or English ones!)
A grimly realistic story, set in the future (as visualized in 1935), about the building of an undersea tunnel between England and America.
The opening scene depicts a meeting of millionaires and engineers discussing the project, and it bares a strong resemblance to a similar scene in "Destination Moon". The movie's basic message is also similar to "Destination Moon" — determined men doing a big job despite colossal odds.
The special effects are remarkable, the "futuristic" production designs are gorgeous, and the music is effective. There are some truly gripping moments in this fine motion picture. Especially memorable is the huge mechanism that drills the tunnel beneath the ocean. "Trans-Atlantic Tunnel" makes a great second feature for "Things to Come".
Directed by Maurice Elvey. Starring Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans, Helen Vincent, C. Aubry Smith, George Smith, George Arliss, and Walter Huston.
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:45 pm; edited 9 times in total |
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Steve Joyce
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| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:25 am Post subject: |
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The Bernard Kellerman (sp?) novel from which all of the film adaptations spring forth is an interesting read too.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:38 am Post subject: |
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| Steve Joyce wrote: | | ... Bernard Kellerman (sp?) ... |
Close. Bernhard Kellermann
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Rocky Jones
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| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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That would be a pooping long tunnel, all right. I suppose the designers would actually have to somehow accommodate for continental drift. Perhaps they could have some telescoping segments or something. You'd probably even have to pump down air from the surface at various intervals. I'll have to watch this movie sometime.
I'll have to watch this movie sometime. Like many of these older films, it's on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1hgZAAMLiM |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Rocky Jones wrote: | | That would be a pooping long tunnel, all right. I suppose the designers would actually have to somehow accommodate for continental drift. Perhaps they could have some telescoping segments or something. You'd probably even have to pump down air from the surface at various intervals.[/url] |
You nailed several excellent reasons for scraping this whole idea, sir. 
Frankly I think the idea of trying to travel between North America and Europe via a tunnel under the ocean is about as realistic as going from Kansas to Hong Kong by boring through the Earth's core.
Constructing the tunnel would be insanely expensive and difficult. Maintaining it would be a hemorrhaging wound on the world economy. And traveling through it would be about as safe as going spelunking in the lava tube of an active volcano.
The saner alternatives include the airliners that carry people who are in a hurry, the huge freighters that handle the mega-tons of cargo, and the ocean liners which handle the folks who want to take the scenic route.
The concept of this subterranean death trap is presented realistically enough in the movie to talk any intelligent person out of doing it, rather than convincing us that it's one of those marvels we'll enjoy in a lovely future age.
Even though I vote against building the tunnel, I vote in favor of watching this great movie!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 10:55 am Post subject: |
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I had to update Rocky's link to the YouTube version. Not a terrific picture quality I'm afraid.
The second version is from archive.org and seems a bit better. Damn, I love those guys. Archive.org is a gold mine, thanks to folks like All Sci-Fi member Maurice, who volunteers there.
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_______________ Transatlantic Tunnel (1935)
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______________ The Transatlantic Tunnel 1935
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Jan 15, 2024 7:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gord Green
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| Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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What a crazy idea!
BY THE GREAT ALEX SCHOMBURGH!!!
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2019 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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I watched this movie again when TCM aired it recently and I was newly impressed.
I think it's perhaps the best science fiction from the 1930s and 1940s, better (in my opinion) than Metropolis and Things to Come. It's a sprawling story which presents the concept flawlessly, packed with amazing special effects and well-designed sets.
The movie accurately predicts the existence of volcanic activity in the mid-Atlantic trench before it was proven, decades later.
I also admire the way the movie presents the economic, political, and scientific consideration of this engineering challenges, a task which spans more than 20 years.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Rocky Jones wrote: | | That would be a pooping long tunnel, all right. I suppose the designers would actually have to somehow accommodate for continental drift. Perhaps they could have some telescoping segments or something. You'd probably even have to pump down air from the surface at various intervals. I'll have to watch this movie sometime. |
All very important considerations, and I'm certain that The Chunnel under the English Channel had to deal with a few problems like that.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2024 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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Just a quick thought about the transatlantic tunnel concept.
| Vactrain - Wikipedia wrote: | | A 1960s proposal has a 3,100 miles (5,000 km)-long near-vacuum tube with vactrains, a theoretical type of maglev train, which could travel at speeds up to 5,000 miles per hour (8,000 km/h). At this speed, the travel-time between New York City and London would be less than one hour. |
I don't know if my idea below is feasible or not, but the fact that a vactrain needs to have the entire subterranean tunnel maintain a near-perfect vacuum seems to put a lot of stress on the structure.
However, would it be possible to have normal air pressure inside the tunnel, but (somehow) cause it to flow through the tunnel at 5,000 miles per hour?
The maglev train would race along with the moving air, thus avoiding resistance caused by friction. The air would be channeled at each end to reverse direction by flowing from the east-to-west tunnel to the west-to-east tunnel and back again, over and over.
Thus it would be traveling in a closed loop!
I just haven't figured out yet how to get the trains in and out of the tunnels that seal in the fast moving air. But then, I don't know how this would be done with maglev train in a vacuum tunnel either! 
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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