A Message from Mars

The BFI version was screened on the Talking Pictures TV channel in January 2025. Bearing in mind the film was made in 1913 it is easy to be critical of its shortcomings but this was still the early days of British cinema. The film is not completely studio bound and features several outdoor scenes some of which give interesting contemporary background street scenes. The basic story of converting a bad person to a good person by some practical or magical means was not new and has been used in many films since. Picture quality is very good and the film is quite watchable both from the historic perspective and the style of acting used in silent films. Interestingly, according to IMDb several of the players never appeared in any other films and of those who did, none made it into the sound era.