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An expensive, ambitiously mounted production, The Tunnel was actually the
third screen adaptation of German author Bernhard Kellermann's 1913 novel of the
same title, the visionary tale of the construction of a transatlantic tunnel
having first been released in simultaneous German and French versions by Curtis
Bernhardt (as Der Tunnel and Le Tunnel respectively, 1933).
While a number of revisions were made to the narrative (Mac's wife is struck
blind instead of being killed, for example), the British adaptation's most
significant change reflects contemporary political developments within
Europe.
Both the novel and the 1933 cinematic adaptations had depicted the tunnel of
the title as linking the United States with continental Europe (France and Spain
in the novel). The British adaptation, however, promotes a union between the
United States and Britain alone, with the tunnel now serving as a symbolic link
between the two 'English-speaking' countries (tellingly, the film's main
villain, an arms dealer, is French, not American as in the earlier
versions).
Although it is never satisfactorily explained how, it is argued throughout
that the tunnel's joint construction by Britain and America will result in
increased commerce, the easing of international tensions and the prevention of
future wars. To quote Lloyd, one of the project's financiers, the tunnel means
"world peace through the union of the English-speaking peoples".
But the re-routing of the tunnel for the British adaptation reflected more
than the current European political climate. By the mid-1930s, Gaumont-British
was increasingly focused on breaking into the American market, while at the same
time retreating from any similar European ventures. The futuristic linking of
Britain and America by the tunnel ("an artery through which will course the
lifeblood of our two nations") can therefore be viewed as encapsulating the
company's vision of its own future.
The importing of Hollywood actors indicates the degree to which The Tunnel
was aimed at the American market. Richard Dix makes a suitably rugged,
square-jawed hero, one who certainly looks more at home underground than he does
in the domestic sphere, with too much screen time being devoted to family rather
than engineering problems. Despite this caveat, the film remains a broadly
entertaining slice of speculative fiction, fascinating for both its
visualisation of the future and for its commentary on the
present.
John Oliver
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1. A transatlantic plan (3:04)
