Yesterday Looks At Tomorrow: HIGH TREASON (1929; sound version / US edit)

Skipping back to High Treason, a 1929 film that is simultaneously the silliest yet liveliest of our trio of vintage futuristic films.

It’s the least expensive looking of the three, and while the special effects work is interesting, it’s far below the quality of Metropolis and Things To Come.

But -- Surprise!  Surprise! -- it comes closer than either of the other two in predicting the future!

Filmed and released in two versions -- silent and sound -- High Treason was long considered a ultra rare film almost impossible to view.

Thank God for YouTube.  Their version is colorized, which gives it a nice pulp sci-fi feel.  I recommend adjusting the speed setting to 1.5X to pick up the pace.

Based on a play by Noel Pemberton Billing (and ye cats, even though the field of science fiction is crowded with world class eccentrics, this guy easily makes the finals!), it predicts a future (1940) in which the world is divided between The United States of Europe (basically the former English Empire) and the Empire of the Atlantic States (basically the US and South America).

After a border incident (presumably on the former US / Canada border though it’s hard to tell), we learn a sinister cabal of terrorists and war profiteers are planning to stir up another world conflict to line their pockets.

It should be noted that all sides in politics have their adherents who feverishly believe such cabals are the rule rather than the exception, and too often act on spurious accusations rather than recognize their own contributions to current problems.

But I digress…

In what was merrie olde England we find Dr. Seymour, leader of the Peace League, trying to persuade the president of the US of E not to declare war on the E of AS.  As is to be expected, his daughter Evelyn has the hots for Michael Deane, leader of the US of E air force.

The terrorists blow up the Chunnel and push both sides closer to war.  The president of the US of E orders universal mobilization; Evelyn is drafted to work in a munitions plant.  Dr. Seymour keeps trying to persuade the US of E not to go to war.  The terrorists bomb the Peace League headquarters but Dr. Seymour survives.  The president of the US of E indicates he will declare war.  Evelyn persuades the other female munitions workers to block the US of E air force from taking off; they face down a platoon of soldiers sent to kill them.  Dr. Seymour goes to make one last effort to persuade the president of the US of E not to declare war and when the president gets ready to announce the declaration on television, Dr. Seymour shoots him!

Yes, you read that right.

Anyway, war is somehow averted (because killing a superpower’s leader just as he’s about to declare war will of course get everybody to realize they’ve been a bunch of silly billies), Dr. Seymour is put on trial for murder, and the final verdict is left up to the audience.

Noel Pemberton Billing was simultaneously an avowed pacifist and a promoter of air power.  He was a big proponent of saturation bombing and hated Germans with a passion that led him to accuse Germany of sending over homosexuals to seduce red blooded English men.

The version of High Treason I saw was the roughly hour long US theatrical sound release; the silent and sound UK releases run 97 minutes.

It’s a goofy film but it’s not a bad one.  There’s certainly passion in the project,  no matter how ridiculous or cliché the story.

And it’s actually about something.  It’s easy for us to overlook the enormous psychic damage World War One did on Europe, particularly England.  They lost enormous numbers of young men, traumatizing families and communities in the aftermath.

Most Europeans did not want war ever again in the 1920s and early 30s, and as Goering observed, it took relentless propagandizing by Hitler and the Nazis to stir up trouble in Germany, forcing the rest of the world to rearm.  For a science fiction film to suggest another such war could be averted was a welcome fantasy for many.

While many English reviewers liked the film, by and large critics eviscerated it.  It’s very clearly influenced by Friz Lang’s Metropolis as well as other films of his including Spione and the Dr. Mabuse series.

While imaginative and striving for epic scale, High Treason also reveals its budget limitations, sometimes in good / ingenious ways (the bombing of the Chunnel is accomplished with a lot of flicker images instead of detail effects shots), sometimes in bad / cheap ways (a brief reaction shot lifted from Battleship Potemkin is instantly recognizable by film buffs everywhere).

But as inept and as inexpensive as it may appear at times, it’s also trying to say something worthwhile.  For all its sins and shortcomings, the passion it brings feels genuine. 

How well did it predict the future?
Surprisingly well.  The Nazi / terrorist linkage is noted above.  The date of the start of the war isn’t far off.  They assumed Prohibition would still be a thing in 1940.  The costumes look like things people might wear.  There’s a lot of T&A (not uncommon in European films of the era, very uncommon in US films); at one point Evelyn wears a costume that makes it appear she’s half dressed above the waist (she also gets a lengthy shower scene to a jazz accompaniment; the producers knew what would keep the meat in the seat).  The futuristic dance is not sillier than real dances of the 1940s / 50s / 60s and the film features a musician / DJ who plays pseudo-synth music by using a futuristic keyboard to get music from dozens of remotely operated instruments.  The communication screens don’t look very different from an iMac.  In terms of details, this came the closest of the three.

Is it a Big Film with Big Ideas?
Yes.  The idea of governments being pushed into war even against the will of their citizens gives this more gravitas than dozens of better films, and while the problem is personified in Evelyn, the factories and nightclubs are filled with dozens of characters who convey the full range of responses to the possibility of war. 

Bonus:  Raymond Massey of Things To Come is also in this film as a cabinet maker

© Buzz Dixon

see also:

Metropolis

Things To Come