Rome's pioneering work in early science fiction

Doomed to obscurity - 

early British sci-fi

Ethel White poses with her husband Henry Rome on the set of Plan Seven from Margate. Made in 1934, this ground-breaking sci-fi epic was largely filmed on location. It featured a robot (played by Rome) and a giant flying saucer model made from balsa wood, tinfoil and Dale lubricated tampons. Siamese actor Tongchai Tong was once again badly miscast, this time as the mute chip shop owner who discovers the spaceship under the pier.

The movie was reportedly bankrolled by Rome who was an avid collector of the American magazine, Astounding Stories. To his dying day, he claimed his movie inspired the much better known The Day the Earth Stood Still made seventeen years later.

Classic American sci-fi

Plan Seven from Margate was banned by the British Board of Censors shortly after its release. The notorious scene involving the robot, Nurse Daisy, a jar of Vaseline and an elastic band was deemed a danger to public morals.

“Henry was simply way ahead of his time,” said White, looking back on the untimely demise of her husband’s movie. “He was terribly misunderstood, I’m afraid. It was a financial and artistic blow.”

Desperately escaping alien seaside invasion

Rare publicity shot of Henry Rome. In long-lost The Shadow of Siam he played gritty merchant seaman Bert Bulger who jumps ship in pursuit of necrophilic elephant hunter Adolf Kublewagon. Ethel White played Ginger, the idealistic Brighton waitress with a club foot and severe hearing impediment Bert saves from a life of white slavery. Ethel claimed she based her character on Anna May Wong in the classic British movie Piccadilly. Local actor Tongchai Tong was badly miscast as Bert’s plucky cross-eyed sidekick Chalky.  

Tong doing his Ben Turpin

impression in Singapore

A silent movie with expressionist pretensions, The Shadow of Siam was made some time in the late twenties. It was never released. Empire Gryphon Films collapsed shortly after the cast returned to England and the owner mysteriously vanished. When interviewed by the Daily Standard about his experience filming in Siam Rome simply said: “I never want to see another bloody mango again.” 

Anna May Wong who never met Rome

Shadow remains the only British silent movie to have been made in Siam (now called Thailand) and was apparently mired in scandal. Originally called the Metropol, the hotel used in the production of the movie might still exist in Bangkok – check this post on the Pulp Zen blog: 

http://pulpzen.blogspot.ch/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=6

Both The Shadow of Siam and the Metropol feature in the dystopian crime novel Zen City, Iso.

The infamous mango incident 

Big Bang in Bournemouth

British morale raiser Bad Day in Bournemouth. The movie starred Lucky, a master of disguise who helps Captain Bulger thwart Nazi saboteurs planning to blow up an unsuspecting English seaside town.

On the set technicians prepared the life-sized model train with liquid nitrogen for the dramatic climax. But the stunt went terribly wrong. The massive explosion flattened a nearby a glue factory and fatally injured more than twenty, including Lucky. 

Preparing for a fatal train ride  

Movie production started in 1941 but was never finished.  

Sadly, this would be Henry Rome’s last film. Suffering from years of drug addiction, he ended his days as Snooty the Elephant carrying a Daily Standard billboard up and down Brighton promenade.

Henry Rome's final act

Fatal encounter

Hapless hitman Percy Nuttle (played by Henry Rome) before his fateful encounter with serial pet shop owner Madge Miggins (Ethel White) on the 6.30 train to Penge. Percy would never make it home. 

Due to be released in 1939, the entire film stock of Kiss the Blood Off My Hamster was lost during the Blitz. Only a few tantalising stills and a postcard are all that survive.

Now completely forgotten by the British public, Rome and White were once the biggest celebrities of their day. They worked on many British movies together, including the legendary The Shadow of Siam.