Too many fans seem to be blown away

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Visually quite Impressive, this Depression Era Sci-Fi Film is one of the few in the Genre outside Kid-Stuff Serials, because Science Fiction never Really Caught On until the Fifties. It nicely Aligns with "Metropolis" (1927), "Just Imagine" (1930), and "Things to Come" (1936).It seems a bit Early to Wear its War Paranoia so Heavily and Much is Made about how a Transatlantic Tunnel Uniting Britain and America will Stem the Tide of another World War and makes the Case that it will End War altogether.Much Melodrama concerning the Incredible Feat of Construction. The Cost in terms of Dollars and Human Lives. The Strength of the Movie however is the Eye-Popping SFX. The Art-Deco Set Designs are Amazing and the Slick Production is Top-Notch and Enthralls, Excites, and Captivates at Every Turn.Two-Way "skype" Like Television Screens of All Sizes Populate the Picture and there is Some Attempt to Show Futuristic Aircraft and Automobiles. The Over Baked Drama is Almost Deadly at Times with its Heavy Handed British Style Acting, and Subplots Concerning Family Strife and Capitalism, but Not Enough to Take Away from the Overall Enjoyment of the Spectacle. Overall, Recommended Despite the Melodramatics. It Remains an Eye-Candy Treat for Young and Old and Looks as Good as Any British Film of the Era.

This movie is set in "the future" - at least the future as it was envisaged in 1935, when it was made. It's actually never really established when this is set, but all things considered it had some pretty impressive predictions of futuristic devices (as well as, inevitably, a few misses.) So ,for example, there's reference to a tunnel having been built under the English Channel between Britain and France (which we today call the "chunnel") in 1940. That's several decades too early, but it gives us a reference point; the movie is set later than that (probably significantly later than that.) There's also apparently fairly widespread use of television, and even video-messaging "Skype-like" devices. Mind you, the movie misses the Second World War as far as we know. Helicopter-type airplanes never did become the rage, and there also seems to be an assumption of the survival of the "British Empire" - as late in the movie the King of England is referred to as the "Ruler of the British Empire" - a phrase that would have disappeared from the lingo not too long after this movie was made really. Still, it's a pretty impressive bit of future-gazing.The story revolves around an engineer who has invented a new kind of steel that's strong enough to allow for the building of a tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean between England and the United States. The scenes set inside the tunnel while it's being built are starkly impressive - looking like one would expect such a massive works project to look like. The work is dangerous, which is well portrayed, and a lot of men lose their lives working on the project. That, in a way, becomes the real subplot of the movie.A lot of lives are lost in the tunnel, but lives are also lost because of the tunnel. McAllan (Richard Dix) for example - the engineer in charge of the project - sacrifices literally everything (up to and including his own family) for the sake of this project. The project takes over his life. He eats, drinks and sleeps the tunnel. There's nothing else that even remotely competes with the tunnel in his life. That leads to all kinds of personal melodrama mixed in with the technical scenes about the building of the tunnel.Maybe I'm looking at this too much with almost 80 years of distance, but as I watched this and the negative effects the tunnel was having on so many lives, I couldn't help but think of this as a classic white elephant public works project. It's almost 5500 kilometres from London to New York City as the crow flies. Who would use this tunnel? What possible practical use would there be for it? Yes, it creates some jobs - so the unions support it. It makes money - so the corporations support it. Because it does both - the governments support it. And for the sake of national pride - the people support it. But for what? Apparently there's an international threat brewing from a coalition of "Eastern nations." How will the tunnel help with that? I guess the Americans could ship arms and men to England through the tunnel (if the threat is from Eastern Europe) or Britain could do the same for America (if the threat is from Asia) but this still seemed to be a waste of time, energy and lives.But that's 80 years later. It didn't make for a bad movie, but I would have liked a clearer explanation of why the thing was being built in the first place. As it is, it was apparently being built - just because we can! (6/10)

It's always interesting to see science fiction from the past and see what the conception of the world is from years past. How close are we to realizing a tunnel across one of earth's oceans?In 1994 the English Channel Tunnel commenced operations and at that it is only the second largest tunnel on the planet. The Seikan Tunnel which connects the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu is the largest. At that the Swiss will have beaten both of these when the Gotthard tunnel is finished which will be under several Alps speeding transportation across Switzerland and Europe in general.Politics as well nature delayed the construction of the English Channel Tunnel. So when and if we're ever ready to cross the Atlantic Ocean, by that time we may be rocketing to different worlds.In the world that The Tunnel is set in the construction of this undersea passage will forever cement the home world of the British Empire to the United States of America. At that point the English speaking people's of the planet will take on anybody. At least President Walter Huston of the USA and future Prime Minister George Arliss hope that the powers will be joined at the hip forever so to speak.The reason this is all possible is a radium drill that scientist Leslie Banks has invented. The Colonel Goethals of the project is hard driving American Richard Dix. Dix sacrifices all for the project including family because he believes in it so. The women in both their lives at different points are Madge Evans and Helen Vinson.The sheer idea of the technological achievement dwarfs the story and the players. The special effects are primitive by today's standards, still the film does entertain. When we get into the personal lives of those involved, the film veers over into the melodramatic.Some thirty years after this film there was this Grade C science fiction film that involved a trans Pacific tunnel. But that was being worked on in secret by the Communist Chinese to invade the United States. That epic was called Battle Beneath the Earth and it is the worst nightmare of every demagogic politician who worked up the crowds concerning the yellow peril.I guess the moral of both stories is when Occidentals build it, it's a good thing, when Orientals do it it's bad.

I was 11 years old in 1935, and an avid movie goer. I was absolutely fascinated by the idea of digging a tunnel from England to America, no more unbelievable at that time, than building a tunnel under the Channel from England to France which was actually begun by Napoleon in 1802 and completed in the 1990's. It is now over 70 years since I saw the film and cannot remember much of the detail except that the lead actor was Richard Dix who if my memory serves me correctly was the chief engineer. I don't know why it is referred as science fiction as many movies over the years have to do with construction projects, and I saw it as a real happening. Perhaps towards the end of this century it may be accomplished.