Rhapsody in 35MM

Each season, we will focus on a particular genre of film and explore its roots in hopes to illuminate the shadows and dark corners of film history. Throughout each season, we will discuss aspects of film history that are routinely overlooked and provide little-known details on interesting parts of film history that should be brought to light.

Ep. 6: Murder Mystery: G. A. Smith and the Society for Psychical Research 02/02/2026

Ep. 5: Mesmerizing! Spiritualism and the Beginnings of Director G.A. Smith 03/13/2026

Ep. 5: Mesmerizing! Spiritualism and the Beginnings of Director G.A. Smith The episode traces how Victorian-era beliefs in mesmerism, spiritualism, and psychical research—emerging from a period when science, medicine, religion, and spectacle were not yet clearly separated—profoundly shaped popular culture and early horror cinema. Beginning with Franz Anton Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism and its highly theatrical, trance-inducing treatments, the episode shows how mesmerism blurred the line between scientific inquiry, performance, and charlatanism, influencing the development of hypnotism and modern psychology while captivating the public imagination. Spiritualism, imported from the United States through figures like the Fox Sisters and fueled by mass death during the American Civil War, offered comfort, challenged religious orthodoxies threatened by Darwinism, and aligned itself with progressive causes such as abolition and women’s rights, even as it was exploited by frauds like spirit photographers. Intellectuals and scientists—including Alfred Russel Wallace and members of the Society for Psychical Research—debated the legitimacy of these phenomena, splitting believers from skeptics and exposing both genuine inquiry and spectacular deception. Within this cultural milieu, early filmmakers such as George Albert Smith, himself deeply involved in mesmerism, hypnotism, and psychical circles, translated spiritualist imagery—ghosts, rapping spirits, mind control, and apparitions modeled on spirit photography—into cinema, often comedically rather than horrifically, yet establishing visual and narrative conventions that would later define horror. Ultimately, the episode argues that Victorian struggles over belief, authority, class, gender, and scientific legitimacy created the conceptual and aesthetic foundations for the horror genre long before it was formally recognized as such. Check out our website at and subscribe so you don’t miss a new posting. Please make sure to follow us on the social media platform of your choice (or all of them!) Rate and comment so more people can find us. See the blog post for credits: Until next time! /episode/index/show/7b92056b-57af-4bc8-b2ce-83e4f550c60e/id/39971245

Ep. 4: From Magic Tricks to Trick Films: The Transition of Georges Meliese 02/02/2026

Ep. 4: From Magic Tricks to Trick Films: The Transition of Georges Meliese Although horror may seem easy to identify, early cinema complicates genre classification because it lacked many formal tools—such as sound, editing techniques, close-ups, and artificial lighting—while emerging alongside an already well-established literary and theatrical tradition of horror and the supernatural. Using Georges Méliès’ work as a case study, the episode argues that many early “magical,” “phantasmagoric,” or “trick” films are often misidentified as horror simply because they feature dark imagery like skeletons, bugs, decapitation, or death, when in fact their tone, mood, and character reactions signal comedy or spectacle rather than fear. Drawing on Ann Radcliffe’s distinction between terror and horror, the author emphasizes that genre depends not on subject matter alone but on intent, atmosphere, and audience identification with characters—elements communicated through performance and tone rather than narrative complexity in early film. Méliès’ trick films such as The Vanishing Lady, A Terrible Night, and The Four Troublesome Heads function primarily as spectacle or comic demonstrations of cinematic illusion, with the “trick” itself forming the narrative arc and no real emotional stakes for characters. Similarly, later films like Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903), despite involving death and ghosts, use exaggerated performance and gallows humor to provoke laughter rather than fear. Ultimately, the episode contends that early horror should be defined by a clear intention to frighten, not merely by the presence of macabre imagery, making genre classification in early cinema inherently subjective but still discernible through tone and audience cues. Check out our website at and subscribe so you don’t miss a new posting. Please make sure to follow us on the social media platform of your choice (or all of them!) Rate and comment so more people can find us. See the blog post for credits: https://www.rhapsodyin35mmpodcast.com/post/episode-4-remixed-from-magic-tricks-to-trick-films-the-transition-of-georges-meliese /episode/index/show/7b92056b-57af-4bc8-b2ce-83e4f550c60e/id/39971170

Ep. 3: Sunday in the Dark with Georges – Melies’ The House of the Devil 02/13/2026

Ep. 3: Sunday in the Dark with Georges – Melies’ The House of the Devil Ep. 3 traces humanity’s long fascination with horror and spectacle—from ancient theatre, folklore, and public executions to phantasmagoria and magic lantern shows—and argues that these pre-cinematic forms directly shaped early horror film, culminating in Georges Méliès’ 1896 short Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil), often cited as the first horror film. Rooted in Méliès’ background as a stage magician and illusionist, the film draws on Faustian literature and theatrical trickery, using bats, demons, witches, skeletons, transformations, and magical effects to frighten audiences in a safe, entertaining context, much like earlier spectacles. While some scholars have interpreted the character of Mephistopheles as the first cinematic vampire due to bat imagery, hypnotic power, and defeat by a crucifix, the episode contends that the character is clearly a demon—an agent of the devil—consistent with Goethe and Marlowe’s Faust and with the film’s title, which explicitly references the devil. Nevertheless, because associations between bats and vampires already existed in popular culture before Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), and because Méliès’ film was screened in London while Stoker was active in theatre there, the episode suggests that The House of the Devil may have influenced Stoker’s vampire mythology, even if it is not itself a vampire film, illustrating how early cinematic horror helped solidify tropes that later became central to the genre. Check out our website at and subscribe so you don’t miss a new posting. Please make sure to follow us on the social media platform of your choice (or all of them!) Rate and comment so more people can find us. See the blog post for credits: https://www.rhapsodyin35mmpodcast.com/post/ep-3-remixed-sunday-in-the-dark-with-georges-melies-the-house-of-the-devil Until next time! /episode/index/show/7b92056b-57af-4bc8-b2ce-83e4f550c60e/id/39971065

Ep. 2: A New Dimension in Terror: Tropes and Techniques 01/31/2026

Ep 1: What's in a Name? The Etymology and Science of Horror 01/31/2026

Rhapsody in 35MM

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