The phantom ride was a popular genre or filming technique of silent cinema. For the production of these films a camera was attached to the front of a train or other vehicle in order to capture the excitement of speed and motion. These early films usually only ran for a minute or less and often appeared as a fairground or theatrical attraction. For example, the early film pioneer R. W. Paul made a film entitled On a Runaway Motor Car Through Piccadilly Circus (1899) ‘which showed the view from a car ‘speeding’ through the streets’, probably created by ‘under-cranking’ the camera during filming (Chanan, 1980: 286).
Of perhaps more interest here, however,
is Paul’s film from the previous year, A
Switchback Railway (1898), for which a camera was attached to the front of
a rollercoaster. Barnes (1983) comments that ‘audiences in those days were not
accustomed to such cinematic view-points [sic]
and would have found the film much more thrilling than we do today’ (Barnes, 1983:
17-18). He goes on to say that it is ‘an interesting film and still entertains,
but its appeal today is far different from that which was originally intended’
(Barnes, 1993: 18). It is a valid comment, but it could be argued that Barnes
is considering the film in the context of it being a novelty and a contrast to
the ‘complexities of modern-day cinema’ (Barnes, 1983: 18). What should be
considered is that although the phantom ride disappeared as a subject matter in
its own right, due to the ‘narrativization of cinema’ and longer running times,
it became incorporated into the narrative as a momentary ‘attraction’
(Elsaesser, 1990: 60; 56).
As Charles Musser suggests, as early as
1899 phantom rides ‘became incorporated into the travel narrative, enabling the
showman to literalize the traveller’s movement through time and space…G. A.
Smith made a one-shot film of a couple kissing in a railway carriage – a gag
which had comic-strip antecedents. He suggested that showmen insert Kiss in the Tunnel into the middle of a
phantom ride, after the train had entered the tunnel’ (Elsaesser, 1990: 128).
In an echo of R. W. Paul’s ‘switchback’
film, an exciting rollercoaster ride scene appears in the Blackpool Pleasure
Beach sequence in Hindle Wakes (1927).
The camera shots cut between point of view (POV) shots from the front of the
rollercoaster, and shots of the main protagonists Fanny Hawthorn (Estelle
Brody) and Allan Jeffcote (John Stuart) reacting to the thrill of the ride.
Other Pleasure Beach ride POV shots appear in Sing As We Go (1934) and the documentary Holiday (1957), again combined with reaction shots from the
holidaymakers in order to construct a thrilled reaction from the cinema-going audience.
The Big Dipper sequence from Hindle Wakes (1927)
In later years, the phantom ride also
reappeared elsewhere in a different guise. One such example was the ‘Cine 2000’
at Alton Towers theme park which attracted visitors between 1980 – 1992. This
was a large dome-shaped cinema which the audience stood inside, immersed in POV
shots being projected on the concave ceiling of the dome. As the author of the Alton
Towers Almanac website comments:
The Cine 2000 was a must have attraction in the early
eighties, with many other parks around the country also installing them at
about the same time… The movie itself was made up of specially filmed scenes on
roller coasters, racing cars, and such like. The idea worked well, and many
times I can remember people falling over, as they completely lost their sense
of balance while watching (Alton Towers Almanac).
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| POVs from 'The Big One' from the Pleasure Beach YouTube channel |
Bibliography & External Links:
Barnes,
John, 1983, Pioneers of the British Film,
London: Bishopsgate Press
Chanan, Michael, The Dream That Kicks, The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in
Britain, 1980, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
Elsaesser, Thomas, (eds) Early Cinema, Space, Frame, Narrative,
(1990), London: BFI
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