James A. Williamson was a Scottish photographer and a key member of the loose association of early film pioneers dubbed the Brighton School by French film historian Georges Sadoul. He is best known for The Big Swallow (1901), a trick film with innovative use of extreme close-up, as well as Fire! and Stop Thief!, dramas with continuity established across multiple shots.
As Seen Through a Telescope is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an elderly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. The three-shot comedy, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "uses a similar technique to that which G.A. Smith pioneered in Grandma's Reading Glass (1900)," and although, "the editing is unsophisticated, the film does at least show a very early example of how to make use of point-of-view close-ups in the context of a coherent narrative ." "Smith's experiments with editing," Brooke concludes, "were ahead of most contemporary film-makers, and in retrospect it can clearly be seen that he was laying the foundations of film grammar as we now understand it."
Fire! is a 1901 British short silent drama film, directed by James Williamson, showing the occupants of a house in Hove being rescued by the local fire service.
The Miller and the Sweep is a 1898 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a miller carrying a bag of flour fighting with a chimney sweep carrying a bag of soot in front of a windmill, before a crowd comes and chases them away. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was one of the first films made by G.A. Smith, shortly after he first acquired a camera," and is also, "one of the earliest films to show a clear awareness of its visual impact when projected."
Explosion of a Motor Car is a 1900 British silent comic trick 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.
The Big Swallow is a 1901 British silent comic trick film, directed by James Williamson, featuring a man, irritated by the presence of a photographer, who solves his dilemma by swallowing him and his camera whole. The three-shot trick film is, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "one of the most important early British films in that it was one of the first to deliberately exploit the contrast between the eye of the camera and of the audience watching the final film".
Flying the Foam and Some Fancy Diving is a 1906 British silent comic trick film, directed by James Williamson, featuring a man diving from Brighton Pier while mounted on a bicycle, in both forward and reverse motion.
The Little Match Seller is a 1902 British short silent drama film, directed by James Williamson, retelling the classic 1845 Hans Christian Andersen fable of the sad life and tragic death of a little match seller. This major fiction film of the period was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "a serious attempt at depicting a person's inner emotional life on film through purely visual means, using trick effects not to provoke laughter but for serious dramatic reasons." It is one of the oldest surviving silent films.
Our New Errand Boy is a 1905 British short silent comedy film, directed by James Williamson, about a new errand boy, engaged by a grocer who soon regrets the appointment. This "relatively unambitious" chase comedy, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is one of a number of Williamson films featuring a mischievous child, played by the director's son Tom". "Although essentially a series of sketches", this film, according to David Fisher, "demonstrates the extent to which Williamson had developed film technique For a start, the film has a title frame, which includes the logo of the Williamson Cinematograph Company", and, "the chase section anticipates the American comedies of the next decade".
Attack on a China Mission is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by James Williamson, showing some sailors coming to the rescue of the wife of a missionary killed by Boxers. The four-shot film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, was innovative in content and technique. It incorporated a reverse-angle cut and at least two dozen performers, whereas most dramatic films of the era consisted of single-figure casts and very few shots. Film historian John Barnes claims Attack on a China Mission had "the most fully developed narrative" of any English film up to that time."
Let Me Dream Again is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a man dreaming about an attractive young woman and then waking up next to his wife. The film stars Smith's real wife, Laura Bayley, as the woman of his fantasies. Bayley would later appear in Smith's 1906 film Mary Jane's Mishap. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is an excellent example of an early two-shot film, and is particularly interesting for the way it attempts a primitive dissolve by letting the first shot slip out of focus before cutting to the second shot, which starts off out of focus and gradually sharpens." This appears to be the first use of a dissolve transition to signify a movement of a dreaming state to one of reality.
The Waif and the Wizard, also entitled The Home Made Happy, is a 1901 British silent comic trick 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 silent comic trick 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." 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."
Cheese Mites, or Lilliputians in a London Restaurant is a 1901 British silent trick film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a gentleman being entertained by the little people who emerge from the cheese at his table. The film, "contains a reference to Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels (1726)," and is, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "sophisticated in that he combined the jump-cut with superimposition."
The Haunted Curiosity Shop is a 1901 British silent horror trick film directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring an elderly curio dealer alarmed by various apparitions that appear in his shop.
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."
Frank Mottershaw (1850–1932) was an early English cinema director based in Sheffield, Yorkshire. His films, A Daring Daylight Burglary and The Robbery of the Mail Coach, made in April and September 1903, are regarded as highly influential on the development of Edwin Porter’s paradigmatic "chase film" The Great Train Robbery of December 1903, and often claimed as the prototype of the action film. The uniqueness of Mottershaw's A Daring Daylight Burglary is seen in the way it tracks a single action through changing locations. Henry Jasper Redfern and Mottershaw made the first motion pictures filmed outdoors in Sheffield.
Willie's Magic Wand is a 1907 British silent comic trick film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a young boy terrorising the household with his father's magic wand.
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 Michael 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.
