Works featuring "rescue" (83)

Attack on a China Mission

A short reenactment of a Boxer attack. Full description from BFI at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/520615/index.html

Fire!

Read the title - that's all you need to know.

Note the exclamation point (also in the title of the other Williamson film that was shown with this one: Stop Thief!). These titles are shouting and, though short, their feeling is strong.

This is one of the most influential of surviving early action films, and it is easy to see why: it begins in a blaze and the momentum never eases. Cutting from the blaze to the approaching fireman and then back again, the film solidly establishes the drama of rescue - a drama device whose popularity still shows no sign of decline.

Was remade for Edison as Edwin S. Porter's (less exciting) 1903 Life of an American Fireman, which led to Porter's 1903 blockbuster The Great Train Robbery.

Life of an American Fireman

Prelude to 'The Great Train Robbery. Modeled after (but not as exciting as) Williamson's 1901 'Fire!', but the pre-classical instant replay of the rescue (providing both inside and outside views) can seem delightfully offbeat, even avant-garde, for modern viewers accustomed to the classical cross-cutting approach.

Raid on a Coiner's Den

After an intriguing emblematic shot, the coiners are shown hard at work, though at least one is a bit jittery. His fear turns out to be a premonition, as the heat swarms in while the coiners are out. Strangely, the leader of the raid then trades in his supervisory role to go undercover in the den. But when he tries to make the arrest, he shows us why he should've stuck to supervising, as he botches the raid by letting the coiners get the drop on him.

That was an exciting plot twist, but the film failed to build upon that tension, and instead rushes to wrap up the whole affair (via a chase that's almost too brief to be called that) just two minutes later. Promising start but no delivery, so we're left with a botched film about a botched raid on a coiner's den.

Decoyed

A ragtag ruffian forces a 'young girl' to make money on the streets for him. Cleverly uses part of set as a substitute for a title card. But the timeline of events is not clear: all events seem to be happening in real time, but that would mean the 'Reward...Young Girl' poster appears less than a minute after her abductiom!

The Ex-Convict

Message: Social problems of the working class can only be resolved for certain individuals - and only when that serves the interest of some middle-class individual.

Rescued By Rover

1905 is known as a 'miracle year' for physics, when Einstein published papers that changed views on space, time, mass, and energy. That year, the international blockbuster hit movie was of a dog performing tricks for the camera. That this nonetheless appears as a coherent story of a character moving through space and time, has to mark 1905 as also a 'miracle year' for motion pictures.

The Train Wreckers

After servicing her final two corporate customers, the engineer and the switchman, Rail Tramp Trixie finishes the shift on her day job and heads to the woods to unwind with her own kind. But seems The Boys had gotten tired of waiting and started without her, because she spotted them all in a circle - doing what The Boys do in a circle. So she just stood back and watched: she liked to watch. When The Boys were done with their fun, they surprised Trixie with her favorite fun - a little B&D...doggy style. Reenergized, she headed down to the tracks for her freelance gig, hawking her wares by waving her flag from down below, a signal that was well-known all along the train line. When a trainload of randy squares heading to a convention eyed her flag, they brought the train screeching to a halt - and Trixie scored big-time. “All aboard!”

All around those parts, wives all agreed: of all the loose ladies, nobody could wreck a train trip like Rail Tramp Trixie.

Life Of An American Policeman

Another Edison production from Squaresville, that compensates with length for what it lacks in interest. Two years after exciting audiences with the emblematic shot in 'The Great Train Robbery' and Porter still does not use close-ups, resulting in faceless characters without emotion.