Explosion of a Motor Car is a 1900 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by Cecil M. Hepworth, featuring an exploding automobile scattering the body parts of its driver and passenger. "One of the most memorable of early British trick films" according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was one of the first films to play with the laws of physics for comic effect." It features one of the earliest known uses in a British film of the stop trick technique discovered by French filmmaker Georges Méliès in 1896, and also includes one of the earliest film uses of comedy delay – later to be widely used as a convention in animated films – where objects take much longer to fall to the ground than they would do in reality. It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is featured in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
Walter Robert Booth was a British magician and early pioneer of British film. Collaborating with Robert W. Paul and then Charles Urban mostly on "trick" films, he pioneered techniques that led to what has been described as the first British animated film, The Hand of the Artist (1906). Booth is also notable for making the earliest film adaptation of A Christmas Carol with the silent film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901).
The Waif and the Wizard, also entitled The Home Made Happy, is a 1901 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a magician using his magic to aid an ailing girl at the request of her brother. The film, "is rather less elaborate in terms of special effects than the other films that W.R. Booth and R.W. Paul made the same year," but according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "provides an excellent illustration of how effects used sparingly can often have more impact, especially when set in a suitable emotional context."
An Over-Incubated Baby is a 1901 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a woman who gets an unpleasant surprise after placing her baby in Professor Bakem's baby incubator for 12 months growth in one hour. The film is, "one of the most original of the trick films made by W.R. Booth and R.W. Paul in 1901," and according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "one of the less elaborate films made by Booth and Paul that year," "though the concept itself is so imaginative that it arguably didn't need any more than basic jump-cut transformations."
The Countryman and the Cinematograph is a 1901 British short silent comedy film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a stereotypical yokel reacting to films projected onto a screen. The film, "is one of the earliest known examples of a film within a film," where, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "the audience reaction to that film is as important a part of the drama as the content of the film itself."
The Haunted Curiosity Shop is a 1901 British short silent horror film directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring an elderly curio dealer alarmed by various apparitions that appear in his shop.
An Extraordinary Cab Accident is a 1903 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a gentleman making a miraculous recovery after being trampled underfoot by a horse and cab. The film, "seems something of a step back," "compared with the elaborate special effects fantasies that director W.R. Booth and producer R.W. Paul had already concocted," but according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "more complex special effects might well have worked against the impression Booth and Paul were clearly seeking to create, which is that of a man being genuinely run over by a horse-drawn cab, his body being knocked down and trampled by the horse's hooves."
Is Spiritualism a Fraud? is a 1906 British short silent drama film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a medium exposed as a fake during a séance. The trick film is, "one of the last films made by R.W. Paul in collaboration with the trick-film specialist W.R. Booth," and according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "combines elements of the previous year's The Unfortunate Policeman with a special effects sequence. However, unlike Booth and Paul's other work, here the mechanisms are deliberately revealed," "the crucial difference between his illusions and those of a medium is that Booth's audience knew that they were being deceived, but were happy to go along with the charade for the sake of both entertainment and the pleasure of working out how it was done."
The Unfortunate Policeman is a 1905 British short silent comedy film, produced by Robert W. Paul, featuring a policeman chasing a young painter after he tips a pot of paint over him. The film is an, "elaborate chase comedy," which according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is an example of the increasing use of real locations in R.W. Paul's work." Film historian Ian Christie adds, "the irreverent and disrespectful treatment of the policeman would soon become impossible in British films, thanks to the notorious list of proscriptions laid down by the British Board of Film Censors shortly after its creation in 1912."
The Twins' Tea Party is an 1896 British short silent actuality film, produced and directed by Robert W. Paul, The film, "was one of the very first 'facials'," which according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline was, "a popular genre in early British cinema that exploited what to 1896 audiences was the astonishing novelty of being able to see moving images of recognisable people in medium close-up as they reacted to a particular situation." John Barnes, author of The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, adds that, "this charming one-shot film of two infant girls reluctantly sharing tea was one of the most popular items exhibited in R.W. Paul's programmes at the Alhambra Theatre in 1896."
Two A.M.; or, the Husband's Return is an 1896 British short silent comedy film, produced by Robert W. Paul, featuring a drunken husband returning home late at night to the irritation of his wife. The film which, "was almost certainly sourced from a concurrent stage production," is according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "a study in often quite risqué body language, with the husband the worse for drink, and the wife determined both to remonstrate with him and to get him undressed and into bed as quickly as possible."
Come Along, Do! is an 1898 British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by Robert W. Paul. The film was of 1 minute duration, but only 38 seconds has survived. The whole of the second shot is only available as film stills.
The Man to Beat Jack Johnson is a 1910 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, produced by the Tyler Film Company, featuring four-year-old Willy Sanders demonstrating his boxing and wrestling skills against an adult opponent.
The Biter Bit is an 1899 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, produced by Bamforth & Co Ltd, featuring a boy playing a practical joke on a gardener by grasping his hose to stop the water flow and then letting go again when the gardener looks down it to check. The film, "is an English remake" of Auguste and Louis Lumière's L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "providing a good illustration of how early film production companies cheerfully plagiarised each other's work" with "a few minor differences between, most notably a rather greater sense of space and depth in the Bamforth version" and "three distinct planes to the action". It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is used in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
Comic Costume Race is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring comic costume scramble at the Music Hall Sports on 14 July 1896 at Herne Hill, London. The music hall sports day was an annual charity event consisting of other events such as egg and spoon races and three-legged races. The film is the best surviving pictorial record of the Music Hall Sports. It is not known who the race participants are.
Tommy Atkins in the Park is an 1898 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a couple courting in a park who are forced to use desperate measures to get rid of a stout matron who interrupts them. The film was a remake of Alfred Moul's The Soldier's Courtship (1896). It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908 and a clip is featured in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
Willie's Magic Wand is a 1907 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a young boy terrorising the household with his father's magic wand. Similar to "earlier trick films The Haunted Curiosity Shop and Undressing Extraordinary ," this is, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "essentially a series of [loosely linked] special-effects set pieces," however, "the print in the National Film and Television Archive is incomplete, omitting amongst other things a come-uppance where Willie is punished for his misdemeanours by being turned into a girl, thus depriving him of more than one magic wand." A clip from the film is featured in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
Robbery is an 1897 British short black-and-white silent comedy film directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a wayfairer who is forced to hand over his valuables and some of his clothes to an armed robber. The film, "although only intended as a comedy," according to Michael Brooks of BFI Screenonline, "in fact reveals how the stripping of one's Victorian 'uniform' also meant the stripping of one's integrity," and, "turns the viewer into an accomplice, since it forces us to watch the man's humiliation head-on, ultimately aligning ourselves not with the victim but with the thief." It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908.
A Switchback Railway is an 1898 British short black-and-white silent actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring patrons riding on a switchback railway at a fairground at Alexandra Palace, where Blandford Hall can be seen in the background. "This dynamically composed actuality," according to Micahael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was clearly a success, so much so that James Williamson and the Riley Brothers released their own switchback railway films only a few months later." It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908. It is arguable that the filmmaker, R.W. Paul, missed a trick by not placing the camera inside one of the moving cars to simulate the ride from the passenger's perspective, although he might have had difficulty keeping the camera steady. Nonetheless, the film was clearly a success, so much so that James Williamson and the Riley Brothers released their own switchback railway films only a few months later.
Army Life; or, How Soldiers Are Made: Mounted Infantry is a 1900 British short black-and-white silent propaganda actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment riding over a plain. The film, which premiered on 18 September 1900 at the Alhambra Theatre in London, England, "is all that appears to remain of one of R.W. Paul's most ambitious projects," which, according to Micahael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "had it survived in a more complete form," "would undoubtedly be considered one of the most important precursors of the modern documentary."
