Summary

8MISC EARLY DRAMAS #10

Source Archive Films by Getty Images
Title: 8MISC EARLY DRAMAS #10
File Number: AFP-150CX 16mm VTM-150CX Beta SP
Color: B W
Type: Silent Drama
Description: B W 1890s, 1900s, 1910 01:00:00:00 B W 1903 THE MONSTER (Melies, 1903)- The first scene shows a backdrop of the Sphinx and one or two pyramids Two actors walk out and salaam to the Sphinx and to one another Open goes off stage and drags back with him a casket-like box from which he removes a human skeleton He seats the skeleton and drapes it in material The skeleton then becomes alive and jumps around until one of the actors throws it into the arms of the other, whereupon it becomes a skeleton again 01:02:05:05 B W 1897 ARREST IN CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL (Edison, 1897): A street scene in the business district of San Francisco was photographed Two policemen with a Chinese coolie between them proceed toward CAM The next camera position is a profile view of a horse-drawn vehicle labeled Police Department on the side The Chinese man is seated in the wagon, and then the vehicle, with the two policemen who arrested him, starts up the street away from CAM 01:02:43:02 B W 1900 (no title card) HOOLIGAN ASSISTS THE MAGICIAN - A magician performs in front of a backdrop resembling the rear wall of a concert hall His act consists of making barrels appear and disappear, conjuring up apparitions that grow in size and then disappear, and causing furniture to vanish or break in pieces For the finale of the act, the magician causes himself to disappear 01:03:49:00 B W ca early 1900s (Biograph no date listed) AN AFFAIR OF HONOR - This was photographed as if from the audience at a theater Four women approach the center of the stage in front of a forest backdrop Two of the women remove the jackets of their dresses, take fencing swords, and proceed to fence with one another The film ends as one loses 01:04:13:08 B W (Biograph, 1903) NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTERS -- 1903 The subject of this film was conveyed by the use of trick photography, in particular, by superimposed double exposure The first scene shows a sailing vessel at sea riding rather heavy waves Directly over that film can be seen what appear to be specters which, as the film continues, dissolve into four young women costumed as dancers and wearing garlands of flowers For the remainder of the film, the four women dance in unison 01:04:40:10 B W (Biograph, 1903) AMETA - As the film begins, from a camera positioned from the viewpoint of a theater audience, the head of a woman can be seen through an opening formed by two poles on which gossamer material has been stretched As it progresses, the two crossed poles form a circle and become a gyrating spectacle causing the gossamer material to move in many attractive shapes and directions Ameta, the performer, periodically becomes visible through the whirling material Cozy Corner Dance - A girl (Little Anita) dressed in a short white dress goes through various dance steps in front of an unlighted dark backdrop 01:05:02:15 B W (Biograph, 1903): COSY CORNER DANCE - see VTM-149AQ 01:06:22:20 B W (Biograph, 1903) A DANCE IN PAJAMAS -- 1903 Three young women wearing pajamas and high heeled shoes can be seen as the film begins One of the women is sitting on a table and clapping her hands while the other two perform several tap dance routines Soon the two dancers are joined by the third young woman and they continue their dance routine to the end of the film (Probably members of a Broadway chorus) 01:07:11:12 B W (Edison, 1900) AN ARTIST'S DREAM - An artist is painting a picture of a woman clothed in a full length leotard, but he appears weary and falls asleep By either stop action photography or a quick dissolve, the full figure of the woman is changed to a similarly costumed one with the skeleton visible The artist wakes as though from a bad dream or nightmare and the skeleton is transformed back again into an attractive woman 01:07:58:15 B W (Biograph, 1904) PRINCESS RAJAH DANCE - A young woman is seen doing several types of dances throughout the film For the finale, she holds a chair in her teeth and does balancing acts with it Her dancing seems to draw from the contortions of the Turkish, the pirouettes of ballet, and the body gyrations of burlesque (Vaudeville) 01:08:55:12 B W (Biograph, 1906) ERUPTION OF MT VESUVIUS - It is possible to identify a tabletop construction of the supposed area around the foot of Mount Vesuvius There is a mountain and terrain as well as the bay area and a backdrop with a full moon As the action begins, the miniature mountain begins to smoke slightly Then there is a miniature explosion in which a burning substance runs down the side and sets fire to the city below There are several explosions, each larger, followed by black smoke (Primitive special effects) 01:10:26:05 B W (Biograph, 1903) A NYMPH OF THE WAVES -- 1903 During the entire film, a young woman who is a competent dancer can be seen dancing on what appears to be ocean waves The effect was obtained by double exposure evidently the producer of this film photographed the ocean waves and then photographed the dancer on the same negative The dancer was Cathrina Bartho performing her celebrated Speedway dance 01:10:52:25 B W (Biograph, 1903) THE GERRY SOCIETY'S MISTAKE - Four young women are sitting at makeup tables in a backstage dressing room They are in various stages of undress and are evidently preparing to perform One of the young women rises, tightens her dancing shoes, and performs some pirouettes While she is dancing, the door opens and a policeman in uniform and two men in street clothes come in and attempt to arrest the women for indecent conduct The girls plead with the policeman, and finally remove their jewelry, take more out of trunks, and give it all him and push the man out of the door As the film ends, the women are expressing their jubilation at their triumph over the law The Gerry Society was a group that tried to keep children under sixteen years of age off the stage 01:11:42:00 B W (Biograph, 1906) TERRIER VS WILD CAT - This shows an arranged fight between a terrier dog and an alley cat During the length of the film, the spectators harass the animals to a point where they are forced to attack one another Animal cruelty horrific 01:12:27:20 B W 1902 GRANDPA'S READING GLASS - A group of small children is clustered about an old gentleman who is seated at a library table reading through a hand-held magnifying glass The children, intrigued with the possibilities of the glass, take it from him and point it at objects that interest them During the remainder of the film, the cameraman moves his camera to CU bird, a printed page, the eye of a child, the head of a grown woman, the head of a baby, the head of a little girl holding a kitten, and a monkey Each of these CU shots was vignetted by a matte frame in the camera 01:13:33:06 B W 1905 no title card RUBE IN AN OPIUM JOINT - Four people, two women and two men, can be seen reclining in the bunks of an artist's conception of a Chinese opium den Two men dressed as Chinese are attending to the opium smokers The door of the set opens, admitting a man carrying a hand megaphone and wearing a cap labeled Guide He is accompanied by a couple dressed as a country folk who stand and gape The Chinese men offer the rube a pull on an opium pipe He accepts, then shakes his head and reaches in his pocket for his own pipe All the visitors leave the set and, as the film ends, the two Chinese can be seen smoking pipes similar to the one carried by their newly departed guest 01:14:07:05 B W (Biograph, 1902) THE BOYS THINK THEY HAVE ONE ON FOXY GRANDPA, BUT HE FOOLS THEM - with Joseph Hart A man made up to appear as on old, gray-haired gentleman can be seen sitting on a bench in a set of a garden Two small boys, one carrying a banjo, appear and hand the banjo to the old gentleman who begins playing it The two boys start to dance to his accompaniment and when they finish, they indicate that he cannot equal their skill at dancing The old gentleman rises from the bench, goes to the center of the stage, and performs some very intricate steps while playing his own accompaniment on the banjo, to the amazement and astonishment of the boys 01:15:05:00 B W (Biograph, 1903) GEISHA GIRLS - CAM was positioned as if in the audience Three small white girls dressed in Japanese kimonos perform some twists and turns in unison, simulating a Japanese geisha dance 01:15:30:00 B W (Biograph, 1903) - no title card - Organ grinder (Italian stereotype man) in front of restaurant (Tim's Place) Suddenly three high-spirited young people (two women and one men, seemingly celebrating after a night on the town) appear and begin dancing the women dance with the organ grinder, and with each other Women do high kicks (apparently they are chorus girls) a la Floradora Girls Folies Bergere All are having a total blast Just as suddenly as they appeared, however, the two women and the young man run off, and a derbied policeman with night stick appears and beats the organ grinder He will no doubt soon be arrested for disturbing the peace Wonderful little clip 01:15:48:14 B W (Edison, 1897) DANCING DARKEY BOY - The film, photographed from a single camera position shows a black boy as he dances on the hatch cover of a slip or boat An audience of approximately twenty adults encourages him 01:16:27:25 B W (Biograph, 1906) THAW-WHITE TRAGEDY - (AM&B, 1906) The film opens on a set of a fashionable restaurant, where several men and women are sitting at tables Their clothing is modish and they are applauding a performer who is not shown in the picture A man in a full-length overcoat makes a dramatic entrance from camera left With a great flourish, he pulls a pistol from his pocket and fires several times at one of the seated spectators, who falls to the floor The scene ends as someone covers the body on the floor with a white cloth This is a reconstruction of the murder of Stanford White by Harry K Thaw, June 25, 1906, at a restaurant on the roof of Madison Square Garden 01:17:12:18 B W (Biograph, 1910) WHITE ROSES - (Biograph, 1910 silent comedy) William J Butler, Eddie Dillon, Kate Bruce, Joe Graybill, W Chrystie Miller, Jack Pickford, Lottie Pickford, Mary Pickford, Spike Robinson A young man is proposing to a young woman After spending a considerable amount of time on his knees, the shy young man runs from the room He goes to a florist, buys some white roses, writes a note, and sends them to the young woman A messenger boy loses the box, a kind-hearted philanthropist buys him another, and that night the young woman wears the roses When her suitor arrives and finds her wearing roses but not the white ones he bought her, he leaves and proposes to the first woman he meets, a cleaning woman She guides him to a justice of the peace The lost box of roses, with the letter of proposal, is finally delivered to the young woman, who arrives just in time to save the young man from marrying the charwoman (EXT shots filmed in Fort Lee, NJ) 01:23:10:25 B W 1900 (no title card) SHERLOCK HOLMES BAFFLED - (AM&B, released in 1903) A man dressed in rough clothes and wearing a face mask is seen tossing items in a sack he has placed on a table in the center of a set of living room of a house As he continues to fill the sack, the door opens and a man attired in a full length dressing gown appears, taps the burglar on the shoulder and, with the use of stop-action photography, the man disappears Apparently bemused by this, the man in the dressing gown sits down at the table, lights a cigar that blows up, and through the smoke he can see the burglar now sitting on the edge of the table For the remainder of the film, the burglar appears and reappears several times As the film ends, he reappears for the last time outside the house with the sack of loot in his hand
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