Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog

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Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company
Release date
  • May 6, 1901 (1901-05-06) [1]
Running time
1:30
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent/English

Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog is a 1901 silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter. The film depicts a vaudeville act featuring Laura Comstock and her trained dog, a pit bull named Mannie. Comstock's act was currently appearing at Keith's Union Square Theatre. [2]

The film begins with a five-second shot of Comstock and her dog seated at a table and looking at the camera, with a sign in the foreground that says "Laura Comstock". Following this, the rest of the film shows Mannie in front of a rustic backdrop, repeatedly jumping and punching a bag suspended by a rope.

Edison's film catalog said that Mannie's "high jumps and lightning-like punches are remarkable and cause one to marvel at the amount of patience that must be necessary to teach a dog such tricks." [2]

The technique of opening a film with a portrait-style shot of the performers was new to film. This was an innovation by Porter based on the practice of showing lantern-slide photos preceding the exhibition of filmed scenes. [2] It proved influential, and was adopted by other American producers during this period. [3]

Mannie appeared in a number of subsequent Edison films, including several Buster Brown shorts, [4] the Happy Hooligan short Pie, Tramp and the Bulldog, and The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog . [2]

See also

References

  1. Niver, Kemp R. (1985). Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Library of Congress. p. 180. ISBN   0-8444-0463-2 . Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Musser, Charles (1991). Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. University of California Press. p. 173. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  3. Musser, Charles (1994). The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907. University of California Press. p. 316.
  4. Dickey, Bronwen (2016). Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 94. ISBN   978-0-345-80311-5 . Retrieved February 16, 2024.