The Great Train Robbery 1903
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...
This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.
Historical legend composed of five Scenes. 1. William Tell's heroism. 2. The Plot. 3. The Apple. 4. Death of Gessler. 5. The Swiss cheer their Liberator. This popular and interesting legend takes place amidst the country life of the mountain populations. The beautiful and picturesque sites which exist in Switzerland have given us an opportunity of utilising the resources our theatre affords, and our scene-painters have been able to have a free run on their imaginations, and have completed the work by a series of magnificent scenes in the most artistic character.
A green-skinned demon places a woman and two courtiers into a flaming cauldron.
A juggler enters upon the scene, picks up a skull, throws it into the air, catches it in his hands, where it is transformed into a handkerchief. The handkerchief, after being twirled about a wand, is changed to a napkin, and afterward to a tablecloth. Out of the table cloth comes a servant.
The story of Jesus Christ, from the proclamation of His Nativity to His Ascension into heaven. Impressive staging and beautiful hand-coloring distinguish the film from its Passion-play counterparts; Its scale and dynamic crowds prelude the Italian epics to come.
A magician transforms a woman into a portrait of herself, then restores her to life.
Two guards bring a sorcerer into the hall of a palace of the time of the Middle Ages. The king who follows them orders the sorcerer to be chained and to be condemned to death for his practice of witchcraft. He begs the king to permit him just one hour of liberty, assuring the king that he will create, thanks to his power, a charming woman, worthy of becoming the king's consort. The king, after a moment of hesitation, agrees.
A short film from Peter Elfelt showing Dagmar Hansen.
In certain sections of New York City large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors congregate so closely along the sidewalks that they interfere with traffic. Policemen keep them moving. The picture shows how the frightened peddlers hurry away when a bluecoat appears. Some of the carts are piled high with fruits of all kinds, and it is interesting and amusing to see the expressions of combined fear and anxiety on the faces of the men as they hurry away; the fear of being arrested if they stand, and of losing some of their wares if the carts strike an obstruction in the street. Very fine photographically. (Edison film company catalog)
This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.
Shows a young black boy and a white boy in a lively set-to. They finally collapse in the centre of the ring after they have fought themselves to a stand-still. The referee proceeds to count them both out, and the seconds empty buckets of water on the fighters.
A simple scene of two rather flamboyantly-dressed Edwardian children attempting to feed a spoonful of medicine to a sick kitten. The film is important for being one of the earliest films to cut to a close-up, then back again to the same medium shot as before.
With godly entrapments, Zeus appears on the horizon, engages Hermes as an audience, and tries to throw some thunderbolts. They fizzle. Hephaestus tries to make some repairs but succeeds only in heating the bolts and burning Zeus's hands. Zeus conjures nine muses, but do their incantations help? He dismisses them as well as a visiting Pan, and his fits of pique become counter-productive. Can he get his powers back?
The German legend of a scholar's unholy pact with the Devil would have been very familiar to most moviegoers (at least European ones), so Georges Méliès' early cinematic treatment likely got away with simply offering a fancifully illustrated late episode without the earlier narrative context (however, spoken narration provides some of the latter in this restored print). Tempted by Mephistopheles with all kinds of dancing and ethereal babes, Faust is at first excited and then terrified by the sight of various demons and monsters. The painted-set designers really went hog wild on this one, depicting the (sometimes sexy) torments of subterranean Hell with in bold terms (even when ballerinas prance in the foreground). (Dennis Harvey, Fandor)
The scene is similar to that seen at Coney Island, where a number of shows are constantly going on.