The Aerial Submarine

An ambitious British picture that struggles to provide the kind of special effects its story requires. The acting from the two young leads is pretty awful, even for 1910..

Pirates use their flying submarine to kidnap children, sink and loot a cruise liner. They escape the navy by flying out of the ocean and dropping a bomb on the pursuing submarine but ultimately are defeated by their own careless behaviour. The film is a mix of live action, early special effects, and simple animation with one surprising twist: the cold-blooded pirate captain is a woman! By 1916, submarines were an established technology (the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915) but a flying submarine was novel and the concept had staying power: Tom Swift Jr. built a 'Flying Seacoptor' in 1952, the "Flying Sub" was a favorite in 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' (1964), and there have been numerous variations on the theme in Japanese tokusatsu films (e.g. 'Atragon' 1963). 'The Aerial Submarine' was the second 'futuristic weapon' film directed by Walter Booth (after 'The Airship Destroyer' (1909)) and although a bit of a creaky, silent relic, the film is sufficiently imaginative and entertaining to warrant watching.

The pirates kidnap the courting couple and stow them away on their submarine, where they look out the porthole at sealife. Meanwhile, lass's father has reported the kidnapping to authorities, and offered them photographic plates in evidence. The navy to the rescue in their own submarine!! But wait! They can also fly!

Walter Booth was one of the early film makers who came from the background of a stage magician, and he and Georges Melies often covered the same subjects. Later on, he moved into story films with elaborate special effects, and this is one of them, using the techniques that had once formed the whole of his movies. While this one looks pretty crude to the modern eye, bored as we are with CGI and Blue-screen work, it's clearly imaginative and technically good for 1910.