The Quest for Arch Oboler

The following is a guest post by Matt Rovner, who has conducted extensive research in the Arch Oboler Collection. The Arch Oboler Collection contains “nearly the entirety of the prolific output of radio playwright and independent film maker Arch Oboler (1907-1987) in radio, motion pictures, television, theater, and print.” The collection includes a variety of audiovisual formats, as well as photographs, manuscripts, and more, held by the Recorded Sound and Moving Image Sections of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.  

 Who Was Arch Oboler?

Who was Arch Oboler? Modern fans of old-time radio might remember him for his work on the horror series “Lights Out,” including the famous “Chicken Heart,” the tale of a chicken heart that takes over the world (as you can see in this Library of Congress blog post). However, the tirelessly inventive Oboler had many other sides to his work, including in film. His film work seems largely forgotten today, but you wouldn’t notice this obscurity at the Library of Congress, where his collection is vast.

My name is Matt Rovner, and I’m writing a biography of Arch Oboler. I had the good fortune to undertake a volunteer project to inventory the Library of Congress’ uncatalogued film and sound elements in the Moving Image Section of the Arch Oboler Collection. Under the supervision of National Audio-Visual Conservation Center staff, I logged and photographed hundreds of film and sound elements, and discovered some major finds.

First, a quick rundown of Arch Oboler’s film and television career: he completed nine feature films, two of which were highly influential. “Five” (1951) is an independent film and the first to address life after global nuclear war, and profoundly influenced auteurs Francois Truffaut and Bertrand Tavernier. Oboler made America’s first color 3D film, also as an independent, “Bwana Devil” (1952), which touched off Hollywood’s brief 3D craze and permanent turn to widescreen filmmaking. In addition to his completed films, Oboler made a number of television pilots in several unsuccessful attempts to break into that medium. Lastly, he left an uncompleted documentary on Central and East Africa, which consisted of film and sound that he recorded in 1948.

The collection of moving image material in the Oboler collection at the Library of Congress, though large, doesn’t have complete material for every single project. For instance, there are outtakes from his science fiction comedy “The Twonky” (1953), but no complete print of the film. There’s only one sound outtake for his Kinsey Report film “1+1,” and nothing from his studio films “Bewitched” (1945) and “The Arnelo Affair” (1947). But there is a variety of material from other projects, now listed in detailed inventories created during the volunteer project, and I will gladly answer any questions about it.

Some Newly Discovered Highlights from the Arch Oboler Collection

Here are some of my newly discovered highlights in the collection:

“[Arch Oboler Home Movie 1]” (circa 1923). Around 1923, Arch Oboler’s father, Leon, gifted him one of the first consumer home movie cameras, a Bell & Howell 16-millimeter (mm) Filmo 70A. In 1947, Arch Oboler transferred some amateur footage to black and white Kodak film stock. The footage shows Oboler’s older sister Minnie, his parents Leon and Clara and their dog, and his younger brother Eli. This is a beautiful and unexpected find and appears to be the only Oboler home movie from this era that has survived.

“This Precious Freedom” (1942). The collection contains film and sound elements from Arch Oboler’s first film, the thirty minute short, “This Precious Freedom.” Originally, General Motors commissioned Oboler to make this adaptation of his eponymous radio play about a Nazi takeover of the United States. For reasons that are unclear, General Motors decided not to release the film. Oboler and the film’s star, Claude Rains, revamped the film into a feature that was released post-war as “Strange Holiday” (1946). The elements in this film collection and the notes in the collection’s documentation could be used to reconstruct Oboler’s original vision: the first film to imagine an alternate United States in the grip of Nazism. The music is by Grammy Award winner Gordon Jenkins and the cinematography by Academy Award winner Robert Surtees.

“[African Films]” (1948). The collection contains over a hundred reels of Kodak, color reversal, 16 mm film that was shot by William D. Snyder for Arch Oboler in Central and East Africa. Oboler was commissioned by Frederick W. Ziv to bring back film and sound from a six month journey through this region of Africa. Some of the footage is of paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Arch Oboler left an uncompleted omnibus film of ethnofictions. There are tantalizing, unfinished workprints for one of the film’s episodes, called “Daniel & the Monster.” Additionally, there are completed, short documentary segments for television called “Adventure Holiday.” The footage is beautiful and documents a continent in transition from colonialism to independence. The elements in this film collection and the notes in the manuscripts could be used to reconstruct Oboler’s uncompleted film called  “African Adventure.”

“Run Man Run” :  “Big Ben” (1950). This appears to be a complete version of a pilot for a never produced Arch Oboler television series called “Run Man Run. ”The pilot, “Big Ben,” is a thriller that takes place in Africa, which Oboler remade on radio in the early ‘60s. Notably, the episode stars Charles Lampkin, who plays Charles in Oboler’s film “Five” (1951). “Big Ben” aired on “Fireside Theatre”  on May 23, 1950. This may be the only surviving copy.

“[Arch Oboler Home Movie 2]” (circa 1953). This home movie is professionally shot and edited. It takes place around Arch Oboler’s Frank Lloyd Wright complex in the hills of Santa Monica, during winter. It consists of Arch Oboler, his wife Eleanor, his executive secretary and co-wife Jerry Kay, and the children, playing in the snow. Its beautiful color Kodak footage was shot by William D. Snyder, who also briefly appears in the film. A highlight of this home movie is Arch, Eleanor, and Jerry in one sled going down a hill.

“Arch Oboler’s Plays” :  “Hi, Grandma!”(1958). This is a television pilot, in 35 mm film, for a never produced television series. UCLA also has a copy; however, I think that the Library of Congress’ print is superior. It’s like an Ira Levin story before Levin. A young mechanical genius invents a recording device that can play back the voices of the dead. Here, the voice is that of the genius’s evil-dead grandmother, whose malign influence scarred her own children for life and corrupted the innocence of her grandchildren. Arch Oboler expanded the story into his only published novel, “House on Fire” (1969).

Currently, a few of Oboler’s films are available on Blu-ray or DVD: On Blu-ray, “Five” (1951), “Bwana Devil” (1952), “The Bubble” (1966), and “Domo Arigato” (1973). (I provided audio commentaries for “Five,” Domo Arigato,” and the forthcoming restoration of  “The Bubble.”); on DVD, “Bewitched” (1945), and two films that Oboler co-wrote,  “Escape” (1940) and “Gangway for Tomorrow” (1943). These are a great start, but my hope is that digitized versions of new discoveries in the Library of Congress’ Arch Oboler collection will enhance understanding of his filmmaking, and provide many new answers to the question: who was Arch Oboler?

Permission for photos provided by Steven Oboler. 

For more information related to this blog or any Library of Congress holdings, please see Ask a Librarian, and if you plan to come in to view or listen to any collection items, please reach out to our reference staff in the Moving Image Research Center and the Recorded Sound Research Center