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