Works featuring "comedy" (255)
And so I am a comedienne, though I, too, once wanted to do heroic and tragic things. Today my objection to playing comedy is that it is so often misunderstood by the audiences, both in the theater and in the picture houses. It is so often thought to be a lesser art and something which comes to one naturally, a haphazard talent like the amateur clowning of some cut-up who is so often thought to be ‘the life of the party’. In the eyes of so many persons comedy is not only the absence of studied effect and acting, but it is not considered an art.
--Dorothy Gish

Tables Turned on the Gardener/The Sprayer Sprayed (L'Arroseur arrosé)

Considered the earliest known instance of film comedy, and the first use of film to portray a fictional story. Also a seminal work in the field of Internet porn, as the first work in the older-male-spanks-twink genre.

A Terrible Night (Une nuit terrible)

Man's sleep disturbed by a giant bug. This gag is expanded in 'The Farmer's Troubles in a Hotel' (1902), then later refined in Max Linder's 1911 'Une nuit agitee' [Star Film 26]

The Tramp And The Dog

One tramp, one dog, one minute: decide for yourself the cinematic possibilities...

Going to Bed Under Difficulties (Le Déshabillage impossible)

Man finds it impossible to undress for bed, because new clothes magically keep appearing on him.

In The Bewitched Inn (L'auberge ensorcelée) the man's clothes rebelled by politely departing from the room, but here the clothes aggressively refuse to leave his body, as new ones repeatedly replace the clothes that have been removed.

As in his 1896 film, A Terrible Night (Une nuit terrible) and 1897 The Bewitched Inn (L'auberge ensorcelée), there is no rest for the weary here.

This was remade several times, for example W.R.Booth's 1901 Undressing Extraordinary and Alice Guy-Blaché's 1903 How Monsieur Takes His Bath (Comment monsieur prend son bain). Its influence can also be seen in Tex Avery's 1952 animation Magical Maestro.

[Star Film 312-313]

How He Missed His Train

Getting out of bed under difficulties...One man learns to embrace his Inner Slacker. [Star Film 322]

Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel

Looks like an early version of Abbott and Costello's 'Hold That Ghost'.

How To Stop A Motor Car

As taught by a Master of Butt-Fu. An excellent training video for rookie first responders. Learn from the Master, who does a full 10 seconds of comic takes before finally offering a helping hand to the mangled young constable.

The Farmer's Troubles in a Hotel

Farmer's sleep interrupted by pests.

Should be called “The Farmer's Terrible Night in the Devil's Hotel”, as this augments Méliès' 1896 A Terrible Night (Une nuit terrible) with tricks from Méliès' 1896 Le manoir du diable (The House of the Devil/The Devil's Castle/The Haunted Castle) to add another entry to the rube-in-the-city genre that was then popular.

From description at Sulphur Springs Collection of Pre-Nickelodeon Films: Restoration of this comic trick film salvaged 108 ft. of its original 150 ft. length. Some opening action described by the catalog in which the Farmer first enters the hotel lobby was missing.

Mary Jane's Mishap

Got Fire! here, but no heroic rescues: the eugenicists were glad to see Mary Jane go...

Atypical of the era, includes four medium shots when other films included none or just one. The shots reveal the character of Mary Jane in that scene:

  1. a yawning (and probably inattentive) sleepyhead
  2. a careless simpleton, smudging her face while polishing shoes
  3. a playful airhead, goofing with her mistake
  4. the most dangerous type of fool: winks to the camera showing she is pleased with her 'clever' idea of lighting the stove with paraffin
Even more atypically, all of the shots remain within the narrative. Thus, we know all this about Mary Jane that morning without the aid of narration or symbols, but solely through the skillful use of both pantomime and camerawork.