The Madness of Dr. Tube
About The Madness of Dr. Tube
Dr. Tube invents a white powder he thinks will bend reality. He tries it on his boy assistant, his pets, his nieces, and their suitors. Abel Gance shows the result with distorting mirrors and ordinary lenses, because no distorting lenses were on hand. The powder does not do what Tube expects.
Cast & crew
More about The Madness of Dr. Tube
Abel Gance wrote and directed the short. Louis Nalpas produced it. Léonce-Henri Burel photographed it. Albert Dieudonné is in the cast. The French title is La Folie du docteur Tube.
Themes
Making
Burel and Gance set the mirrors so faces and rooms stretch when the powder is supposed to be working.
Look
Léonce-Henri Burel shot through distorting mirrors and ordinary lenses.
Technique
The hallucinations are optical, made with mirrors because distorting camera lenses were not available.
Preservation
The Cinémathèque française holds a print.
Notes
- The warp is done with mirrors, not with a special lens.
- Gance treats the powder as a laboratory joke rather than a story of crime.
- A print is at the Cinémathèque française.
Scenes
- The room and the faces stretch as Tube tests the powder on his nieces and their beaus.
Also available
- Internet Archive (la-follia-del-dottor-tube-1915-abel-gance)
