The Clown and the Alchemist - 1900

Country: United States

Release Date: November 1900 (USA)

Filming Locations: Vitagraph Studios - 15th Street & Locust Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Plot Keywords: Clown | Magic | Apparition | Magician

Genres: Comedy | Fantasy | Short

Although we are led to believe that the ancient alchemists were all powerful, this picture somewhat reverses the order of things. The clown plays some wonderful pranks on the old professor. He appears in numerous startling positions, using his club with great effect and always escaping punishment. At last the alchemist brings his magic power into use, and calling two hooded assistants, orders a large cauldron brought in. The climax, by which the clown finally disposes of the alchemist, is startling in the extreme.   

Hockey Match on the Ice - 1898

Country: United States

Director: William Heise

Release Date: February 1898 (USA)

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Sport

"The skaters dart to and fro, swinging their hockeys and trying to hit the disc toward the goal."

Astor Battery on Parade - 1899

Country: United States

Release Date: January 1899 (USA)

Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Plot Keywords: Spanish American War

Genres: Short

The Astor Battery became famous after the Spanish-American war and these young men are on display in this Edison short, which was shot on Saturday, January 21, 1899. We see a parade cross Broadway onto Union Square with the mounted police, the band and then the Astor Battery. The footage of this short is still in very good condition, which adds a lot considering how little footage is available of these men. Needless to say the real entertainment comes from seeing these real life men and as a history lesson this film is quite important. 

A Morning Alarm - 1896

Country: United States

Director: James H. White

Release Date: 27 November 1896 (USA)

Filming Locations: Newark, New Jersey, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Runtime: 1 min

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Documentary | Short

This shows the Fire Department leaving headquarters for an early morning fire. The scene is remarkable for its natural effect. The opening of the engine house doors, the prancing of the horses, and even the startled expression upon the faces of the spectators are all clearly depicted.

This Edison feature is of interest in that it films a popular subject of its time using a slightly different approach than most film-makers took with it. There are quite a few 1890s features like this that show fire-fighters at work, often as they hurried to the site of a fire, but most such movies used a viewpoint similar to the classic diagonal angle that the Lumières helped to popularize.

This one, instead, uses a different camera angle, trying to catch the vehicles as they come out of the station, then make a right-angle turn, and then come past the camera. It's a much harder task to pull off, and it actually doesn't work all that well here. You see much more of the anxious crowd than of the fire-fighting vehicles, and the vehicles actually move outside the camera field for part of the running time. The print as it survives is also pretty blurry, which doesn't help.

So this is most noteworthy as an example of an attempt to do something a little different, and even though as a movie it is not that good, it was certainly a worthwhile idea that remains worth seeing for that reason.

Another Edison feature, "Going to the Fire" was made the same day in the same city (Newark, New Jersey), and it works much better by using the more usual diagonal camera angle. The same is true of another Edison feature with a confusingly similar title, "The Morning Alarm", which was filmed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Harrisburg footage is distinctive and still looks pretty good. This one ("A" Morning Alarm) does not work as well, but it is distinctive in taking a different approach.

Connections

Featured in Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005). The entire film is included on the DVD

Esquimaux Leap-Frog - 1901

Country: United States

Release Date: August 1901 (USA)

Filming Locations: Buffalo, New York, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Documentary | Short  

The Fair Co-Ed - 1927

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Sam Wood

Writers: George Ade (play), Joseph Farnham (titles), Byron Morgan

Stars: Marion Davies, Johnny Mack Brown and Jane Winton

Release Date: 23 October 1927 (USA)

Also known as: Die blonde Kollegin (Áustria), La gloria del colegio (Spain), Loira Caloira (Portugal)

Production companies: Cosmopolitan Productions (for) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy

Plot Keywords: Based On Play

Another terrific comedy for Marion Davies. Interesting plot has Davies go off to college where she joins the basketball team to be near the coach, Johnny Mack Brown. She instantly makes a rival of Jane Winton, who's also interested in Brown. Davies (in a William Haines sort of role) refuses to play with Winton and after being chided quits the team rather than play with Winton.

The team begins to lose, to the delight of Davies, and as the "big game" approaches she hears the students razzing her at a pep rally. Davies swallows her pride and re-joins the team but the girls won't play with her. During the half-time Brown tries to gets the girls to make up. Davies admits she's been a cluck and all is forgiven.

Interesting role-reversal for 1927 with the women's basketball team seemingly the idol of the co-ed campus (no men's team is mentioned). Davies and Winton spar over the love interest (Brown). Davies does her usual great comedic work here but also has an incredibly physical role. That's really MARION DAVIES playing basketball: running, shooting baskets, reaching for toss-ups. 

Trivia

The original Broadway production of "The Fair Co-Ed" by George Ade opened at the Knickerbocker Theater on February 1, 1909 and ran for 136 performances.

Post No Bills - 1923

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Ralph Ceder

Stars: James Parrott, Marie Mosquini and Jack Ackroyd

Release Date: 5 August 1923 (USA)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

James Parrott is also known as "Paul Parrott" and those in the know may remember him as the director of many of Laurel and Hardy's best films (such as the Oscar-winning MUSIC BOX as well as HELPMATES and PARDON US). However, before directing Stan and Ollie, his brother Charley Chase, the Little Rascals and others, he was a silent comedian himself--having appeared in well over a hundred films!

This and another Parrott short (SHIVER AND SHAKE) are part of a new DVD set entitled "American Slapstick". However, unlike SHIVER AND SHAKE, POST NO BILLS is very funny and well worth seeing. The film begins with a very selfish and lazy Parrott calling in a false alarm to the fire company just so he can hitch a ride! Then, when he arrives at work, his nasty boss informs him that the people who were supposed to post bills around town advertising the theater couldn't make it and Parrott was expected to do it instead...or else! This sequence with the boss is the poorest in the film as it had LOTS of low-brow and unnecessary slapstick--people getting kicked in the butt repeatedly for no reason. This was comedy gold around 1915, but by 1923, it was already rather passé.

Despite this problem, the rest of the film was great. Seeing the lazy and rather amoral Parrott posting bills EVERYWHERE and in the most clever ways was funny. Not only did he post them on fences and walls (where they usually went) but he posted them secretly on people's butts, on cars and countless other silly places. I particularly liked the banana and the shoeshine gags--they were pretty clever.