The Tunnel

Michael Balcon produced this Gaumont-British remake of a German film, Der Tunnel. It was heavily geared towards the American market with Hollywood stars including Richard Dix as the engineering genius behind the scheme for a railway tunnel under the Atlantic, Walter Huston (seen only briefly) as the US President, Helen Vinson as the daughter of an American millionaire backer, and Madge Evans as Dix's anxious wife. Leslie Banks leads the British contingent, while George Arliss matches Huston as Britain's prime minister. The massive drilling operations which bring the team into explosive contact with volcanic lava are far more impressive than the human story.