More About Nostradamus is a 1941 short film (ten minutes) directed by David Miller.
It's about, yep, the man himself, Michel de Nostradamus, the supposed 16th century psychic. The film starts with a ridiculous prologue in which a French count in the 17th century opens Nostradamus's tomb, only to find a scroll buried there some 75 years earlier predicting that the tomb would be opened that very day. The short then sketches out some brief facts about Nostradamus's career, like how he worked as a physician, how his wife and two children died of plague, and how he worked as a beautician for the ladies of the royal court before getting into mysticism.
The meat of the film however is Nostradamus's prophecies. After showing how Nostradamus recognized a young priest who would eventually become Pope Sixtus V, the drama moves on to Nostradamus's predictions of 20th century events. Clips are shown of prophesies of World War I, aerial and submarine warfare, the overthrow of Kaiser Wilhelm, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, and the beginning of World War II.
Tropes:
- Age Cut: To show that the young priest is Sixtus V, the film cuts from a shot of him as a young man in Nostradamus's day to a shot of him in old man makeup as the Pope.
- Answer Cut: The film ends with a Nostradamus prophesy about how the "daughter of the English Isles" will come to Britain's rescue and win the war against Hitler. The narrator says "Daughter of the English Isles?" Then there's a cut to the Statue of Liberty, showing that the United States will save England.
- Cobweb of Disuse: The French count attempting entry to Nostradamus's tomb finds the door completely covered in cobwebs.
- Day of the Jackboot: The same shot of soldiers' jackboots marching down a street is used for both the Nazi takeover in Germany, and the German conquest of France.
- Documentary: A brief sketch of the life of Nostradamus, although much of what is in the film is now known to be apocryphal.
- The Ken Burns Effect: A single zoom in to a painting of Michel de Nostradamus.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: The French count that breaks in to Nostradamus's tomb finds a letter, sealed in a tube and placed there decades ago, that predicted the tomb would be opened that very day. The count, or rather Carey Wilson providing his dialogue in narration, is saying "But how could he—" when the door to the tomb falls over and bonks the count on the head, killing him.
- Narrator: Producer Carey Wilson provides excitable, over-the-top narration as he describes Nostradamus's life and prophecies.
- Sequel: The film is called More about Nostradamus because it was the follow-up to an earlier MGM short simply called Nostradamus. Carey Wilson, the writer/producer of both shorts as well as many other shorts for MGM, made further shorts like Further Prophecies of Nostradamus, Nostradamus IV, and Nostradamus and the Queen.
- Stock Footage: Plenty of this is used in the latter portion of the film as the narrator recounts Nostradamus's prophesies of World War I, the rise of fascism, and World War II.
- Young Future Famous People: Nostradamus's first magical prophesy involves him walking out of the palace and kissing the robes of a bemused young priest. The young priest? Pope Sixtus V, of course.
