Science Fiction Films

Universal's ambitious silent adaptation of Jules Verne's novel, directed by Stuart Paton and produced by Carl Laemmle. Allen Holubar plays Captain Nemo, who stalks the seas in his submarine Nautilus seeking revenge against the man who destroyed his family, while a French professor and his companions are taken captive aboard the vessel. The production pioneered genuine underwater photography using the Williamson brothers' submarine tube, shot on location in the Bahamas, and was one of the most expensive films of its era at roughly half a million dollars. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Adventure · Science Fiction · Silent

The Soviet Union's first science fiction spectacle, directed by Yakov Protazanov for Mezhrabpom-Rus and adapted from Alexei Tolstoy's novel. In post-revolutionary Moscow, engineer Los builds a rocket and flies to Mars, where he falls for the planet's queen, Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva), and helps spark a Martian proletarian uprising. The film's lasting fame rests on its astonishing constructivist design — Alexandra Exter's geometric Martian costumes and sets look like nothing else in silent cinema — while its Earthbound scenes offer a wry portrait of life under the New Economic Policy. Released in the United States as Revolt of the Robots. A 1924 production, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Science Fiction · Drama · Fantasy · Silent

A mad scientist named Dr. Aranya (Jackie Coogan) conducts experiments on Zarpa Mesa in Mexico, injecting women with spider enzymes to create an army of spider women and dwarfs. When a group of survivors escapes the mesa, their pilot must recount the horrors to a doctor who doubts his story. Coogan — best known as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family — gives a memorably strange performance in this notorious low-budget production from Ron Ormond and Herbert Tevos. Frequently cited among the worst films ever made, it later appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Horror · Science Fiction

George Reeves stars as Superman in this special eighteen-minute short produced for the U.S. Department of the Treasury to promote school savings stamp programs to children. When a blackout strikes Metropolis, Superman visits a classroom and teaches the students — including a boy named Blinky — about buying U.S. Savings Stamps. The film was donated to the Treasury and never aired commercially, making it the only Adventures of Superman production in the public domain. It features the series' regular cast including Noel Neill, Jack Larson, and John Hamilton.

Fantasy · Science Fiction