Pretty much a remake of A Trip to the Moon (1902)

I watched this on TCM last night. Was suprised to learn how little George Milies' filmmaking technique had changed during the years intervening between his "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Conquest of the Pole." Even the camera was still stationary; nor had Milies, even by 1912, adopted the custom of his industry peers in employing close-ups, a technique brought into prominence by D.W. Giffith.

While worth watching as a curiosity piece, it is nevertheless a virtual remake of the 1902 short for which Milies is best remembered.

The motion picture industry throughout all nations on earth owes a tremendous debt to Milies as the early great pioneer in cinema; yet, it's little wonder that his career would finally end the year following the release of this picture. Milies' contemporaries had long passed him by in filmmaking and narrative technique, and audiences of Milies' films had grown weary and bored with the staleness that characterized his later work.

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