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A Message from Mars – 1913 [Impossible Voyages #3] – Blue Towel Productions


As mentioned previously, in “Impossible Voyages” I’m watching and writing about a run of new (to me) science fiction films to be watched over this year (and possibly beyond). You can read the rationale and ground rules here. In the meantime, we are advancing from 1908 to 1913 with this movie, #3 in this series.

Spoilers Ahead

A Message from Mars (1913)

Directed by J. Wallett Waller

The Story: To make up for an undisclosed crime, the Martian Ramiel must travel to earth and attempt to redeem the wealthy but selfish Horace Parker.

Starring: Charles Hawtrey as Horace Parker, E. Holman Clark as Ramiel, Chrissie Bell as Minnie (Horace’s fiancée), Hubert Willis as a tramp that Horace befriends, Frank Hector as Arthur Dicey (a rival for Minnie’s affections), Kate Tyndale as Minnie’s aunt Martha, and R. Crompton as the “God of Mars”, who is the one who sends Ramiel to earth in the first place.

Comments: Though this the third film in this series, it’s the first one that I’ve seen which you could call “feature length” (I’ve seen the movie listed as 68 minutes long, but the versions I can find are just about an hour long) and which therefore has the modern trappings one expects with movies, like a plot, characters facing dilemmas, and story arcs and resolutions. It also is the first to feature one of the classic science fiction mainstays, aliens, and thus is the first (but I assume not the last in this series) sight of human actors dressed up in funny costumes playing people from outer space.

And the Martian costumes are classic. They wear tights on their arms and legs, with shorts and a tunic over them. Atop this there are decorative shoulder pads, a head covering, and ankhs around their necks. We don’t get a lot of Martian society in this movie, but they seem to be beings of great power, they watch events on earth through some sort of space-crystal ball, and their leader is known immodestly as the “God of Mars”, but he basically seems to be akin to a judge sitting in a chair.

An interesting facet to the movie’s Martians is the fact that the actors who play them, especially co-lead E. Holman Clark as Ramiel, bring a lot of over-the-top, theatrical movements to the performances. One might think this is just an aspect of silent film acting in the 1910’s, but you don’t see this with the rest of the characters, so it’s presumably a deliberate choice. It’s maybe not the most creative way of depicting an alien culture, but it is something, so that’s nice to see.

But most of A Mission to Mars is actually spent on earth, with the story of Horace Parker, a rich guy in his 50s who has somehow landed a fiancée a good thirty years younger than him. Whatever drew attractive young Minnie to him is not enough to keep her convinced that he is the guy for her when she is confronted with his selfishness.

The audience (and the Martians) get to see hints of this–he doesn’t want to give money to beggars, for instance. But for Minnie the real issue is when Horace refuses to take her to a dance that he’d previously promised to go to. It’s a pretty minor infraction in the grand scheme of things, but there’s no doubt that he is acting like a bit of a jerk–his decision is abrupt and without warning, and motivated entirely by a kind of selfish laziness (he just wants to sit around home and read his magazine). Minnie might do better to leave Horace behind, and as she seems to have the attention of one of their guy friends at the dance, it seems possible that she might just do that.

Of course, into little domestic scene comes Ramiel, using the classic special effects of early cinema to demonstrate his great powers. He freezes Horace, changes objects from one thing to another, shows him things that are happening in other places, and ultimately turns Horace into a beggar himself in order to teach him the error of his ways.

It’s all a bit simplistic of course, and underdeveloped, but there is still something believable about the way that Horace’s perspective comes around. He is forced to beg for tips for just opening carriage doors for people, partnering with another beggar in the process. When his friend collapses due to weakness, Horace shows him kindness, even agreeing to split the merger money they have come across even though he could have easily taken it all for himself.

This is enough for Ramiel, who restores Horace to his former position. Horace takes his new friend home to look after him, saves a bunch of kids from a burning building (yes, this is just thrown in there, so we could just be absolutely rock solid in the fact that he had changed his ways, and then ultimately reconciles with Minnie, who for no apparent reason had become convinced that Horace might be a good guy after all, at least enough to go and see him in time to catch sight of all his good deeds.

All in all, it’s a sweet little morality play, though certain sequences (especially near the beginning) and awkwardly long and slow. It has has quite a decent performance from Charles Hawtrey as Horace, although having the character be as old as he is a bit inexplicable. Possibly this is explained, however, as Hawtrey was a distinguished actor who had also produced many plays, including A Message from Mars, which this movie is based on.

It’s not surprising that A Message from Mars is based on a play. The movie is very “stagey” in the sense that a lot of the action happens in extended wide shots of static locations. We do go outside onto the street, which adds some variety, but in most of those scenes the camera is still fairly locked down. The locations themselves are interesting, however, including the Ancient Greece-style halls of the Martians.

Of course, the fact that move is based on a play begs the question of how the Martian’s powers were visualised on stage, but I have no idea about that.

This movie is apparently Britain’s first science fiction film. The play was adapted into a movie on at least two other occasions–one in 1903 which was a short film produced in New Zealand as the country’s first ever fiction film (not just science fiction). It is unfortunately considered lost. It was later made in the United States in 1921…I guess that version could still show up in this series. We will see.

Incidentally, if you think the plot of A Message from Mars sounds something like A Christmas Carol, you are not the first person to notice that–it was a criticism of the play back in the day. One of the differences of course is that while the events of A Christmas Carol were supernatural in natural, here it is down to science fiction. This makes this possibly the second movie in this series (after The Electric Hotel, last time) which puts a sci-fi spin on supernaturally-themed source material. All that to say that the sci-fi elements of A Message from Mars are basically an excuse for the movie to bring something like magic into story. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just interesting to me to keep an eye on how these things are treated as I go along.



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