Related Research Articles
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 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.
Blackfriars Bridge is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring top-hatted pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages passing over Blackfriars Bridge, London. The film was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "taken from the southern end looking northwards over the Thames by R.W. Paul in July 1896," and, "screened as part of his Alhambra Theatre programme shortly afterwards, certainly no later than 31 August"
Undressing Extraordinary is a 1901 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a tired traveller struggling to undress for bed. The film, "provides one of the earliest filmed examples of something that would become a staple of both visual comedy and Surrealist art: that of inanimate objects refusing to obey natural physical laws, usually to the detriment of the person encountering them," and according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "has also been cited as a pioneering horror film," as, "the inability to complete an apparently simple task for reasons beyond one's control is one of the basic ingredients of a nightmare."
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."
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."
The '?' Motorist is a 1906 British short silent comedy film, commonly called "The Mad Motorist" or "Questionmark Motorist" and directed by Walter R. Booth. Released in October 1906, the trick film is "one of the last films that W.R. Booth made for the producer-inventor R.W. Paul," and, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "looks forward to the more elaborate fantasies that Booth would make for Charles Urban between 1907 and 1911, as well as drawing on a wide range of the visual tricks that Booth had developed over the preceding half-decade."
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."
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 clearly 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.
Footpads is an 1895 British short silent drama film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a top-hatted pedestrian against a rainy London backdrop, who is assaulted by three footpads and rescued by a passing policeman. The "atmospheric" film, "is chiefly of interest for its imaginative approach to background décor," where according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "some effort has been made towards establishing a sense of realism." Roland-François Lack of University College London points out that this painted backdrop looks like "a hybrid of Trafalgar Square, with its electric advertisement for Bovril, and Piccadilly Circus, with the advertisement for Mellin's Food", but has discovered that it in fact represents Ludgate Circus.
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 film, "has the feel of a filmed music hall act " thanks, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, to a, "simple idea ," which is, "primitive in its execution." A clip from this film is featured in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed.
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.
The Automatic Motorist is a 1911 British short silent comedy film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a robot chauffeur taking an inventor and a young honeymooning couple on a wild ride around the planets and under the sea. The trick film is a, "virtual remake of The '?' Motorist (1906)," according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "but on a bigger scale."
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 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 handover 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.
References
- ↑ Brooke, Michael. "The Unfortunate Policeman". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
