Sci-Fi Message From Mars (1913) - Watch Britain's Oldest Sci-fi Film

Gemma

Captain
Not really sure if this is the right place to post this or not or if it is even of any interest :o_O::bag:

In 1913, almost a hundred years before NASA landed the Curiosity rover on Mars, Wallett Waller directed A Message From Mars, Britain’s first sci-fi film . The British Film Institute has digitally restored the movie, with a new score by composer Matthew Herbert, Creative Director of the New Radiophonic Workshop. You can watch all 69 minutes of this landmark film on the BFI Player, the first time the movie has been available in full since it was shown in cinemas early last century.

Loosely based on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, it stars silent-movie actor Charles Hawtrey (whose name the Carry On star would later take) as a Martian who travels to Earth to teach a selfish man the error of his ways.


Watch the fully restored film at http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-a-message-from-mars-1913/

I posted this on my own site and someone replied with some extra info...

I do believe this was a "remake" of a lost 1903 New Zealand film of the same name, or at least based on the same source as the New Zealand version, the play, Message From Mars.
 
... or if it is even of any interest
I think it's safe to say vintage sci-fi movies are of interest around here. :D Thanks for the posting it, it's great to see projects like this where old works of art are restored and then released to the general public with easy access.

After reading the description of the movie on the site, I am now curious about the play that the movie was based on. Specifically I'm curious if the movie was based on a play that was similar to A Christmas Carol or if the play itself in 1913 featured Martians!
This fascinating film was based on a highly popular stage play which saw many revivals over 30 years in Britain. It features the first on-screen imaginings of Martians by a British film-maker, as futuristically clad members of the Martian court. Thought transference, instant space travel, mind control and the use of a far-seeing crystal ball all feature in this ground-breaking film. Restoration specialists at the BFI National Archive, in collaboration with Dragon Digital in Wales, spent over six months painstakingly assembling the full-length film from two shorter versions and a tinted print held by the Museum of Modern Art.
 

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