Death Ray, The
Entry updated 24 June 2024. Tagged: Film.
Russian silent film (1925; original title Luch Smerti). Goskino, Directed by Lev Kuleshov. Written by Vsevolod Pudovkin. Cast includes Vladimir Fogel, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Sergei Komarov, Leonid Obolensky, Porfiri Podobed, Vsevolod Pudovkin and Anya Stravinskaya. 125 minutes (but some of the film is missing, most notably the ending). Black and white.
Somewhere in the West a rebellion by factory workers has been crushed, with many killed. Then we are shown some of the main protagonists, including Tomas Lann (Komarov), the rebellion's leader, now sentenced to death; Edith (Khokhlova), circus markswoman (seen gleefully blow-drying her hair) and Major Hard (Obolensky), head of the fascist organization (see Politics) Helium (we see him removing his moustache guard).
When Lann escapes and flees to Russia, Hard responds by trying to arrest the revolutionary committee, but fails: the attempt is witnessed by Edith's prim and pious sister (Khokhlova) who has come to collect Edith's young son, who was at the house where the committee are hiding. Later we see the factory's safe broken into and the money stolen – it is apparently taken by Edith's sister to a revolutionary hideout, but she is then revealed to have been Edith in disguise. Edith sometimes pretends to be her sister, a fascist sympathizer, to infiltrate Helium's headquarters (it is not clear whether the sister actually exists). In Moscow, Lann has befriended the engineer Podobed (Podobed), who shows him his Invention, a Death Ray which ignites combustible materials at a distance: we see it blow up a phial filled with liquid. Meanwhile in the West, Hard plans an aerial bombardment of the workers' town where the rebellion is based: provocateurs will cause a violent incident to justify the attack. He also wants Podobed's death ray and instructs one of his agents, the cleric Father Revo (Pudovkin), to obtain it: Podobed's assistant, Shura (Stravinskaya), is courted by Fog (Fogel), one of Revo's minions.
Fog and his men kidnap Podobed but are unable to locate the ray. Later Lann searches the house and grounds for clues (smoking a pipe whilst doing so, presumably to evoke Sherlock Holmes), and when Fog returns to retrieve his dropped wallet Lann captures him. As Fog is wearing a hat and goggles Lann is able to disguise himself and return to the fascist hideout with Fog's accomplice. Action sequences follow, with Lann lynching a guard and escaping death from an oncoming train through the intervention of Edith. After the robbery – intended as a distraction – Edith had travelled to Russia: earlier we saw her at Podobed's house being updated on events by Shura, who was guarding Fog. Thinking her simply an adventuress Hard had told Revo to hire her to assassinate Lann, but she threw away the gun he gave her. Subsequently Shura is sweet-talked by Fog into freeing him: he promptly chloroforms her, but gives her an affectionate kiss on the forehead. She is later killed by Revo when he and Fog locate the ray.
The final extant scenes involve Revo and Fog flying to the West with the death ray, with Lann in pursuit. Fog sabotages his plane so it has to land in the wilderness, intending to kill Revo for the murder of Shura, but fails – Revo pushes Fog's head under as he sinks in a bog. However Lann now arrives and pursues Revo. Whilst this has been happening we have been regularly cutting to the provocateurs stirring up trouble, then three bomb-laden aeroplanes flying towards the workers' town and the ensuing panic at their approach. At which point extant copies of the film stop: the last reel, and thus the ending of the film, is lost. We can reasonably assume that Lann kills Revo, retrieves the ray and gets to the workers' town in time to shoot down the aeroplanes.
The death ray acts as a McGuffin for most of the film, but clearly the ending would involve it being of major consequence to the plot. The opening reel is also said to be lost, though its absence is not obvious, unless we were supposed to see the initial failed rebellion. However, it is possible that a reel (or part of one) in the middle of the film is missing: Revo's finding of the ray and murder of Shura are not shown. Though the politics are unsubtle – aside from Fog's genuine affection for Shura, the villains are caricatures – and the plot cluttered and occasionally unclear, there are parts to enjoy. Kuleshov is an important early film theorist and film maker, and The Death Ray is an experimental film where he tries out his ideas on editing and other practices. Scenes such as the laboratory gunfight in darkness and some of the action where Lann is working to free Podobed impress. Though a little mannered at times, Khokhlova does good work as Edith; the other actors are less memorable. It seems to be implied that Religion and modern art are allies of fascism; the former is represented by Revo, the latter by an artist whom Hard has look after Edith's abducted child.
Some sources refer to claims that Alexei Tolstoy's novel Giperboloid inzhenera Garina (1926; vt The Garin Death Ray) was an influence, pointing out this could not be the case as it was published after the film. Another inspiration is said to be Valentin Kataev's Povelityel zhelyeza (1925; vt Lord of Iron) or the 1924 short story from which it was expanded, but – aside from having a ray – the plot is very different. A simpler explanation is that these works have a shared inspiration: the worldwide media excitement created by British inventor Harry Grindell Matthews's claims to have invented a death ray in 1923. [SP]
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