Evolution. From the Birth of the Planets to the Age of Man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Evolution. From the Birth of the Planets to the Age of Man |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Raymond L. Ditmars |
| production | Charles Urban |
| cut | Benjamin C. Gruenberg |
Evolution. From the Birth of the Planets to the Age of Man is a lost film by the US herpetologist and film director Raymond L. Ditmars from 1923 . It was produced by Charles Urban's Kineto Company of America . The aim of the film was toinformthe audience about the theory of evolution as defined by Charles Darwin . The film wasrevisedin the Inkwell Studios to an extent that can no longer be determined today, and animation sequences from the early 1918 dinosaur film The Ghost of Slumber Mountain by Willis O'Brien were added. The publication of this compilation film took place in 1925 under the title Evolution or Darwin's Theory of Evolution .
action
The formation of the solar system and the earth is described in detail in a series of real films and animated sequences. This is followed by depictions of the diversity of animal life, from the simplest forms to mammals and finally to humans. Human achievements, particularly in architecture and technology, are presented in detail.
Production notes
In 1923 Charles Urban had a very extensive archive of film material that had been produced in the previous 20 years. The economic difficulties of his Kineto Company prompted him to cut new films together from existing material. One of those products was evolution. From the Birth of the Planets to the Age of Man . Urban hired Raymond L. Ditmars , herpetologist, curator for reptiles and mammals of the New York Zoological Society and film pioneer, to provide scientific support for the project . Ditmars was involved in the selection of the material from the Urbans film archive and was the director of several re-shot scenes.
The approach of telling the evolutionary story in a film from the creation of the universe, the solar system and the earth through the development of animal life to humans and their achievements is the cinematic implementation of a narrative formulated in the second half of the 19th century , the is called the Epic of Evolution in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world .
Besides the director, only Benjamin C. Gruenberg , a New York biology teacher, was named as editor in the opening credits . Gruenberg was married to the American reform pedagogue Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg and published teaching material on biology, evolution and sex education between the world wars.