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Voidsville Follies

Works featuring "dance" (48)

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Showing 1-20 of 48 works

Momijigari (紅葉狩)

Tsunekichi Shibata (director)
Onoe Kikugorō V (lead)
Ichikawa Danjūrō IX (lead)

Language: Silent, released in Nov. 1899
Minutes: 2

A record of the performance of two famous kabuki actors, the oldest known surviving Japanese film.

Featured elements:

: actuality and documentary; dance; fighting

A Tough Dance

Kid Foley (lead)
Sailor Lil (lead)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)

Language: Silent, released in Jun 1902
Minutes: 1

The Library of Congress entry for this states: Although Niver's Early motion pictures says that the dance being performed is the French Apaché, according to the Oxford dictionary of dance, the Apaché did not appear in France until about 1908, several years after this film was made. The Tough dance appears to be an earlier form of a related dance.

Featured elements:

: actuality and documentary; dance; dance-Apache

The Cake-Walk Infernal

Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Star (production)

Language: Silent, released in Jun 1903
Minutes: 4

The Hollywood musical from Hell. [Star Film 453-457]

Featured elements:

: dance; dance-cakewalk; fantasy; music

La danse des apaches

Gaston Velle (director)
Les Dahlias (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, released in Sep 1904
Minutes: 2

According to the Oxford dictionary of dance, the Apaché did not appear in France until about 1908. But here it is, in full bloom, in 1904. Is Oxford lying to us? Check out this Stanford post “The hidden story of the Apache dance” for an explanation. TLDR: Mistinguett's autobiography claims that she created the dance before 1908, as early as 1903.

Featured elements:

: actuality and documentary; dance; dance-Apache

The Watermelon Patch

Edwin S. Porter (cinematographer/director)
Wallace McCutcheon (cinematographer/director)
Edison (production)

Language: Silent, released in Oct 1905
Minutes: 11

As usual with Edison, the length far exceeds the interest. But don't chuck this one: skip the long boring chase and fast-forward to the uncredited cake-walking babies strutting their stuff and rocking the house.

Featured elements:

: chase; comedy; dance; dance-cakewalk; ethnic stereotype; kiddie act; torture; vigilante; white supremacy

A Harlequin's Story (La Légende de Polichinelle)

Albert Capellani (director/writer)
Lucien Nonguet (director)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Jun 1907
Minutes: 8

Or, 'How Max Came To Comedy'

Featured elements:

: dance; ethnic stereotype; fantasy; goofs; rescue

The Irresistible Piano (Le Piano Irresistible)

Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)

Language: Silent, released in Oct 1907
Minutes: 4

Dance fever - the musical version of the incremental chase. Max Linder films used a scaled-down version of this gag at least twice. Like other Alice Guy comedies, mostly it's the unrestrained comic flair of the anonymous (uncredited) performers that elevates this from a simple gag to delightful madness.

Featured elements:

: comedy; dance; extended incident

Beginning of the Serpentine Dance (Création de la Serpentine)

Segundo de Chomón (director)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, released in Jul 1908
Minutes: 5

Here Linder pays his dues in a way familiar to many comics: as merely the comic lead-in to the girlie show.

Featured elements:

: comedy; dance; fantasy

She Would Be An Actress

Lubin (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Aug 1909
Minutes: 5

Intense drama unfolds when wife must choose between the two greatest joys in her life: dancing on stage, and whacking her hubby upside the head. What will she choose: the glamour of stage life, or the fulfillment of pummeling Papa?

Featured elements:

: abuse; backstage; by the book; comedy; dance; emblematic shot; family; forsaken; marriage reconciliation; neglected spouse; obsession; patriarchy; shrew; slapstick; undercover agent; zero to hero

La tournée des grands ducs

Léonce Perret (director)
Yves Mirande (writer)
Armand Numès (lead)
Polaire (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, French titles, English subtitles, released in Mar 1910
Minutes: 7

The Apaché dance shown in its natural habitat: a cabaret act for an appreciative audience. And this even places the dance within a story - an early 20th-century “dark ride”, sans animatronics.

Featured elements:

: backstage; breaking class; dance; dance-Apache

The Queen of Spades (Пиковая дама)

Pyotr Chardynin (director/writer)
Louis Forestier (cinematographer)
Alexander Pushkin (author)
Pavel Biryukov (lead)
Aleksandra Goncharova (lead)
Andrey Gromov (lead)
Khanzhonkov (production)

Language: Silent, Russian titles, English subtitles, released in Nov 1910
Minutes: 15

Fails as an adaptation: had to consult a summary of the short story it is based on to make sense of it.

Fails as dramatic performance: the star hams it up with all the worst excesses of early cinema performance, constantly on his toes, ballet-style.

But won a place in my heart at the ball, with the hilarious Three Couples Dance.

Featured elements:

: dance; gambling; home invasion; homme fatale; humanoids; melodrama; psycho; servitude

A Shy Youth (Les timidités de Rigadin)

Georges Monca (director/writer)
Charles Prince (lead)
Mistinguett (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in 1910, month unknown
Minutes: 8

A shy young man is sent to court a young lady, but ends up being allured by a servant pretending to be the absent young lady. Humorously highlighting class differences via a spirited and domineering woman that breaks down the reserve of a bourgeois man, this provides the basic framework of the screwball comedy (sans happy ending). Mistinguett steals the show, exuding the kind of earthy charm and humor that gave her fame.

Featured elements:

: breaking class; comedy; comedy of manners; dance; farce; identity mix-up; screwball comedy; servitude

Bread for the Birds (Le pain des petits oiseaux)

Albert Capellani (director)
Georges Le Faure (writer)
Stacia Napierkowska (lead)
Lucien Callamand (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, French titles, English subtitles, released in Aug 1911
Minutes: 14

A tight little work mixing comedy and melodrama, brief enough to avoid being boring or annoying, skillfully flying through 7 settings in just over 10 minutes, and featuring a bit of lovely dancing.

Featured elements:

: aging; backstage; bookends; comedy; dance; melodrama; poverty; tramp; zero to hero

The Cameraman's Revenge

Wladyslaw Starewicz (animator/cinematographer/director/writer)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Oct 1912
Minutes: 13

Not on the Disney Channel! Is there a performance in any Griffith film as engaging and entertaining as given here by dead bugs?

Featured elements:

: animation; comedy; dance; infidelity; metatheatre; neglected spouse; parody; prison; revenge; sexuality

The Musketeers of Pig Alley

D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Anita Loos (writer)
Elmer Booth (lead)
Lillian Gish (lead)
Walter Miller (lead)
Alfred Paget (lead)
Robert Harron (lead)
Harry Carey (lead)
Dorothy Gish (lead)
Biograph (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Oct 1912
Minutes: 17

Rival gangs exchange mean mugs and bullets, leading to an enigmatic ending. Free of the more aggressively manipulative Griffith conventions (e.g., damsel in distress, race to rescue), instead focusing on atmosphere and character (Elmer Booth's wonderful portrayal), makes this seem less dated than other Griffith works.

Featured elements:

: action; antihero; crime; dance; dance-trot; gangs; metatheatre; sidekick

Tigris

Vincenzo Denizot (director)
Natale Chiusano (cinematographer)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Edoardo Davesnes (lead)
Alex Bernard (lead)
Lidia Quaranta (lead)
Itala (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Feb 1913
Minutes: 48

The monotonous story of repeated disguises doesn't provide enough incentive to suffer through the eyestrain of viewing this poor quality print. Maybe all the creativity was spent on the hallucination sequence.

But there is one claim to fame here: in 7 years of Voidsville Follies, here is the first instance seen of someone tied to train tracks (actually, tied up and then dumped on the tracks - a more efficient method) that seems to be done for drama, not laughs.

Featured elements:

: abstraction; action; alter ego; automobile; boozy-woozy; chase; crime; criminal mastermind; dance; detective; master of disguise; servitude; tied to the tracks; train; undercover agent

A Night In Town

Phillips Smalley (director)
Pearl White (lead)
Chester Barnett (lead)
Crystal (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Mar 1913
Minutes: 5

As in A Shy Youth (1910), the servants of Uncle Tom's Dick take advantage of Dick's downtime to have a little fun of their own. No laughs, but at least it's short. Only notable for the mention of the dance craze: “Turkey Trot”.

Featured elements:

: breaking class; comedy; comedy of manners; dance; dance-trot; farce; identity mix-up; servitude

A Strong Revenge

Mack Sennett (director/lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Nick Cogley (lead)
Keystone (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Mar 1913
Minutes: 12

A weak comedy. Twelve minutes, one gag: homemade stench bomb revenge. Threadbare premise, even by early Keystone standards, with Ford Sterling forced to carry the comic load without help from Sennett or Mabel. And poor condition of print certainly doesn't help.

Featured elements:

: comedy; dance; dance-trot; revenge

Jone, Or The Last Days Of Pompeii

Ubaldo Maria Del Colle (director)
Giovanni Enrico Vidali (director)
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (author)
Cristina Ruspoli (lead)
Pasquali e C. (production)
Vay e Hubert (production)

Language: Silent, Italian titles, English subtitles, released in Aug 1913
Minutes: 100

This version adds characters, and adds variety to the settings (including animals and spectacular chariot races). Most interesting is the lively background action that adds a sense of ambiguous realism - is that a crap game? Wait - is he supposed to be a femboy? And why does that crazy dance come to the foreground, hiding the villain's attack on Jone?? Strange, but dazzling flick.

Featured elements:

: abuse; animal act; boozy-woozy; courtroom; dance; falsely accused; heroic defender; historical drama; manipulator; melodrama; redemption; rescue; revenge; Roman empire; servitude; suicide; treachery; unrequited love

Pierrot the Prodigal (Histoire d'un Pierrot)

Baldassarre Negroni (director)
Giorgio Ricci (cinematographer)
Fernand Beissier (author)
Francesca Bertini (lead)
Leda Gys (lead)
Emilio Ghione (lead)
Celio (production)

Language: Silent, released in Feb 1914
Minutes: 58

The diva plays the Italian-comedy/French-pantomime stock male character with a cute pear butt. Performance is in “classical” style - cinema's euphemism for “deathly boring”.

Featured elements:

: abuse; comedy; dance; gambling; gender-bender; heroic defender; infidelity; kiddie act; manipulator; melodrama; music; romance; unrequited love

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Showing 1-20 of 48 works

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