Transatlantic Tunnel (1935)

This is the near future (to the 1930s cinema goer anyway) and people live in an Art Deco fantasy world with videophones and fantastically pointy aircraft and cars. Richard McAllan (Richard Dix) and Fred Robinson (Leslie Banks) have devised a scheme to dig a tunnel under the Atlantic between England and America using advanced radium drills. Tunnels have already been dug under the English Channel and Caribbean but the Atlantic is another thing entirely...

While Richard works every hour he can his Ruth (Madge Evans) and child are neglected. Ruth even takes a job as a nurse looking after the ever growing number of sick and injured workers. Ruth herself is afflicted by the strange illness that affects workers and loses her sight.

But the project presses on, with Richard unaware of his wife's affliction or indeed anything else except for the tunnel. When his now grown-up son arrives on the site he barely recognises him. A big problem comes when they reach the mid-Atlantic ridge and the investors get jittery. The project must continue no matter the cost but for Richard the cost is so so high...

The tunnel sets look incredible, an Art Deco vision of the world how it could have been if two world wars had not shattered the Imperial dream.