Romance of Radium

It's odd to hear Pete Smith delivering a more straight narrative, but he does it quite authoritatively as we see a few historical scenarios that illustrate just how the accidental discovery of an element that glowed in the dark led Marie Curie to discover this highly toxic element that was amongst the rarest on earth. It needed a mammoth degree of refining from it's source ore to yield the tiniest amount of it's salt but this process revealed, somewhat miraculously, that despite it's lethal qualities it also had remarkable curative powers, too! It's quite a revelatory short feature this that demonstrates just how much luck and sheer determination, especially at times in history when technology didn't exist, was involved and the significant levels of danger faced by those who experimented with this newfound chemical. Indeed, throughout it's development there were many fatalities amongst the scientific community as the potential of radium was explored. Many of these science features can be terribly dry and uninteresting, but this one stays quite watchable for ten minutes.

A Smith called Pete abandon his usual snarky delivery -- although he maintains his nasal tone -- to narrate this short subject covering the discovery of radioactivity and eventually radium.

Like many of MGM's shorts in this period, the performers of this short subject act in dumb show, while the narrator tells you what's going on. This survivial of silent film and benshi-like narration persisted through the middle of the 1950s, with series like Pete Smith's and James A. Fitzpatrick's TRAVELTALKS. Both of these producer-narrators were fond of a long-winded style of delivery. Whether that has any relevance is up to you to figure out.

For those now undergoing cancer therapy with radiation this film should be of interest. It's from Pete Smith the legendary head of MGM's short subject department back in the golden days of the studio system. The subject is a serious departure from his comedy shorts.

Quite by accident radium was discovered by Henri Becquerrel and he brought it to the attention of fellow scientists in Paris, Pierre and Marie Curie. It was them who identified it as an undiscovered element and it took years to isolate it.

Eventually Madame Curie, a widow for many years after Pierre was killed in a Paris traffic accident died from so much exposure to the stuff. Now it's commonly in use, but the danger of over exposure remains.

MGM eventually gave this story the big screen treatment with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as the Curies. But for a factual and less romantic story, I recommend this MGM short subject.

An MGM Pete Smith Specialty.

This unusually sober Pete Smith Short, directed by Jacques Tourneur, gives the history behind the discovery of the marvelous substance, radium, and discusses a few of its potential applications, as understood in the 1930's.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

This Pete Smith Specialty, nominated for an Academy Award, was not the standard Pete Smith effort. Serious in tone and subject matter, this tells the story of the discovery of the diagnostic and curative powers of radium. The more subdued, less humorous, narration is a departure for Smith and is not entirely successful, but it's still a fascinating work nonetheless. Worth seeking out. Turner Classic Movies runs this between movies periodically. The best chance to catch this is probably in March, as part of the "31 Days of Oscar" festival. Recommended.