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. 11: Lilith Fair: The Origins of the Female Vampire
The first episode of Season 2 explores the historical evolution of female vampiric archetypes, tracing their origins from ancient Sumerian demons like Lilith, Lamashtu, and the Greek Lamia. It highlights how these figures were shaped by societal anxieties regarding female independence, sexuality, and the dangers of childbirth.
11 Jun 2026
Ep. 10: Murder Mystery Solved: The Final Days of Méliès and G. A. Smith
This episode traces a turbulent period in early cinema beginning around 1903, when the successes of filmmakers like Georges Méliès and George Albert Smith were threatened by widespread film piracy, weak copyright protections, and shifting industry power. Méliès' films—distributed internationally through businessman Charles Urban—were frequently exploited or pirated by companies such as Lubin Manufacturing Company and Edison Manufacturing Company, reflecting the lawless commercial environment of early filmmaking before motion pictures gained copyright protection in 1912. At the same time, Smith left narrative filmmaking to pursue color cinematography after the death of pioneer Edward Raymond Turner, eventually developing the two-color process later commercialized as Kinemacolor, though business disputes with Urban and the marginalization of Turner's widow complicated its success. The narrative also follows the personal tragedies surrounding members of the Society for Psychical Research—particularly investigator Frank Podmore, whose career and reputation collapsed amid scandal before his mysterious death in 1910. Ultimately, while technological innovations like Kinemacolor reshaped the medium, many early pioneers struggled with exploitation, legal uncertainty, and changing audience tastes; Méliès himself went bankrupt and fell into obscurity before later recognition, while Smith lived long enough to witness the mature film industry that his generation helped create.
Check out our website at https://www.rhapsodyin35mmpodcast.com/ 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-10-remixed-murder-mystery-solved-the-final-days-of-m%C3%A9li%C3%A8s-and-g-a-smith Until next time!
23 May 2026
Ep 9: The Brighton School and the Intersection of Melies, Smith, and Phalke
This episode examines the early development of cinema through the work of Brighton-based filmmakers George Albert Smith and James Williamson—members of what later historians called the "Brighton School"—and explores how many early filmmakers, including Georges Méliès and Dadasaheb Phalke, came from backgrounds in magic, stage entertainment, and magic-lantern shows. The discussion highlights Smith's topical trick film The X-Rays, inspired by the public craze following Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of X-rays, and Williamson's increasingly ambitious narrative filmmaking such as Attack on a China Mission. Central to this emerging industry was American-born producer and distributor Charles Urban, whose Warwick Trading Company distributed films by Smith, Williamson, and Méliès while helping shift cinema from pure spectacle toward narrative storytelling. The episode culminates with Urban's collaboration with Méliès on the reconstructed news film The Coronation of Edward VII, a staged "actuality" created to compete with exclusive footage of the real coronation at Westminster Abbey, illustrating both the growing commercial power of film and the transition from trick-film attractions to more sophisticated narrative and documentary forms at the turn of the 20th century.
Check out our website at https://www.rhapsodyin35mmpodcast.com/ 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-9-remixed-the-brighton-school-and-the-intersection-of-melies-smith-and-phalke Until next time!
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