Movies from 1912: The Conquest of the Pole and The Mystery of the Kador Cliffs

Originally posted to Facebook on 3/1/2016

This weekend we watched our final two films from 1912:

The Conquest of the Pole
The Mystery of the Kador Cliffs

The Conquest of the Pole was a late film by Georges Méliès, and the last of his that we are planning to watch. It is structurally similar to 1902's A Trip to the Moon and 1904's Voyage Across the Impossible, in that it depicts a group planning and embarking on an expedition. In this case the planning is interrupted by suffragettes, who want, if you can believe it, to be included in the trip. Luckily that outlandish idea is quickly rejected! On top of that, the expedition is a joint project between different nations, and the various representatives of those nations are dressed in outfits stereotypically associated with their respective countries. So, in short, this is not one of Méliès’ most enlightened films. Once on their way, the expedition (and rival expeditions) runs into various troubles, including a strange ice giant at the pole itself. This film may not be among the best of Méliès’ films, but it is reasonably representative, and has his typical theatrical whimsy. It is as good a place to leave off as any.

The Mystery of the Kador Cliffs was directed by Léonce Perret for Gaumont, and is considerably more modern. It is essentially a mystery film, and reminded me to a certain degree of the old half-hour Alfred Hitchcock shows. As with many of those shows, and with other shows such as Columbo, the culprit is revealed early on, in this case played by the director. (Hundred-year-old spoilers follow.) His cousin, played by Suzanne Grandais, is a minor, and has an inheritance from her uncle that she’ll receive when she turns eighteen. If she dies or is incapacitated before that, then Perret receives the inheritance. Naturally, just as you or I would, when faced with this kind of incentive, he decides to kill her, as well as a man she’s been seeing. (It’s not made clear exactly how old she is -- I’m going to charitably assume that she is very very close to being eighteen.) However he turns out to be a terrible murderer and fails to successfully murder anyone -- though that is not entirely clear for a while, perhaps by design or perhaps through unclear storytelling. His cousin has become catatonic. However, in perhaps the most interesting sequence in the film, the events that led to her impaired state are re-enacted and filmed, and then played back to her, whereupon she regains her memory. From there she and her co-target piece together the events and identify the culprit. The whole film is well put-together, and miles away from the type of movies that Melies typically made.

Next week we’ll watch our first film from 1913: The Child of Paris, also directed by Leonce Perret. I’ve also added four films from 1914 to the list, which will take us out to the end of April. The list is here: