The Death Ray
About The Death Ray
In an unnamed Western country a fascist government is putting down a socialist rising. Revolutionary leader Tomas Lann escapes prison and reaches the Soviet Union, where the engineer Podobed has built a death ray that can set off gunpowder and fuel at a distance. Father Revo, a fascist agent, steals the machine and takes it home. The government turns it on striking workers. The workers seize it and blow up bombers sent against them. The first and last reels of the release print are lost.
Cast & crew
More about The Death Ray
Lev Kuleshov directed. Vsevolod Pudovkin wrote the script and plays Father Revo. Aleksandr Levitsky photographed it. Porfiri Podobed plays the engineer, Sergei Komarov plays Lann, Vladimir Fogel a fascist named Fog, Aleksandra Khokhlova a woman called Edith, and Leonid Obolensky the fascist boss.
Themes
Background
Goskino released this feature-length science-fiction story in 1925, when Soviet studios were still testing how to stage thrillers with the montage group Kuleshov had trained.
Making
Aleksandra Khokhlova plays Edith, whom the Science Fiction Encyclopedia describes as a circus sharpshooter. The surviving picture stops short of the original ending.
Reviews
Reviews at the time were poor.
Audiences
The film did not do well at the box office.
Look
Aleksandr Levitsky photographed the picture, cutting a Western fascist city against a Soviet laboratory and the ray's tests on fuel and powder.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The first and last reels are lost. What survives does not include the original ending. A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The Russian title is Luch smerti.
- Aleksei Tolstoy's novel The Garin Death Ray came out in 1927, two years after the film, so it cannot be the source. The picture is closer to Valentin Kataev's Lord of Iron (1924).
- Death-ray stories were current after Harry Grindell Matthews claimed in 1923 to have built one.
- The Science Fiction Encyclopedia names the fascist group Helium and describes a bog fight between Revo and Fog that survives without the original ending.
- Kuleshov made it between The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924) and By the Law (1926).
Scenes
- Podobed demonstrates a ray that ignites fuel and gunpowder from a distance.
- Workers turn the stolen ray on bombers sent to break their strike.
Influenced by
- Valentin Kataev's Lord of Iron (1924)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-luch-smerti)
