Conquest of the Pole ["A la Conquete du Pole"] (film #1 on Ballerinas in Hell (Unknown Video). Also, film #6 on Marvelous Melies (A-1 Video). Also, film #16 on Pioneers of the French Cinema (Hollywood's Attic, 1996)). [Category: Early Film & TV]

A bunch of silly people take a weird flying contraption to the North Pole, which looks curiously like the surface of the moon in A Trip to the Moon. There they encounter a huge, grinning, bug-eyed Jack Frost head (store this image away for a later nightmare, kids!). After they torment it with snowballs (really!), it commences to eat them one by one. Fortunately, a quick-thinking explorer shoots a cannon at it, which causes it to spit up his comrades. All ends happily and boastfully at the Explorer's Club. A quite fun Melies romp with lots of unforgetable images. The version on Pioneers of the French Cinema is more complete than the one on Ballerinas in Hell. A 1912 Melies film.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ****.