The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin

Aleksey Nicolayevich Tolstoy, (1883-1945), was a Russian science fiction author. His 1923 novel “Aelita” was the inspiration for a well-respected silent film adaptation released the following year. In 1927 he published the novel “Giperboloid Inzhener Garina,” (“The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”), about a scientist who builds a powerful energy beam weapon. The novel inspired real-life scientist Charles H. Townes to create the theoretical basis behind the “laser.” In the sixties this novel was adapted as a stylish black and white feature film.

This week’s movie was “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin” from Gorky Film Studio in 1965, directed by Aleksandr Gintsburg from a script he co-wrote with Iosif Manevich. The story is set in the year 1925. “Pyotr Petrovich Garin,” (Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev), is a man on the run. He has built a powerful ray gun and intends to use it to conquer the world. He has escaped from the Soviet Union to France to seek the financial backing of industrialist “Mr. Rolling,” (Mikhail Astangov), and his lovely agent “Zoya Montrose,” (Natalya Klimova). Soviet agent “Vasily Shelga,” (Vsevolod Safonov), is in pursuit, but Garin gets the upper hand. Garin desperately needs the research of aged scientist “Nikolai Mantsev,” (Nikolai Bubnov), who is hiding in Siberia. Mantsev has learned the secrets of the “olivine belt,” a portion of the Earth’s crust. Garin wants to penetrate the olivine belt with his hyperboloid ray and tap the enormous gold reserves hidden there. Rolling finances an island base where Garin can mine for gold, but a fleet of battleships are coming to stop him, and Shelga is plotting sabotage from the inside!

This movie gets off to a clumsy start. It took me a while to sort out who all the characters were and what they were trying to do. At about the halfway point I had caught up with the story and started to really enjoy the film. When Garin starts using his weapon the movie picks up steam and becomes exciting. It also begins to achieve a sense of spectacle with intense action scenes including a naval battle and a typhoon. I’m glad I didn’t give up on this movie. It was worth enduring the weak start to reach the climax. At the end the defeated Garin and Zoya find themselves hopelessly shipwrecked on a tiny island with no hope of escape, an unexpected satirical twist that just adds bite to this enjoyable thriller. 

The Art Deco sets and convincing special effects are worthy of a James Bond movie. There is even a working dirigible that appears to have been built just for this film. Sharp-eyed viewers will catch a brief special effects scene “borrowed” from the 1936 British movie “Things to Come.”

In 1973 Tolstoy’s novel was adapted for Russian television in the four-episode “Krankh Inzhener Garina,” (“Failure of Engineer Garin “).

A “hyperboloid” is a geometric shape that apparently describes the structure of the reflector in Garin’s invention. The term was then applied to the device itself.