Alf Collins (director)
Gaumont (production)
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.
Jack Frawley (director/writer)
Lubin (production)
Assault, carjacking, armed robbery - then the action starts... Not usually cited as a significant or influential film, yet it contains a number of elements that were not commonly found in films at that time, but later were widely used.
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
After a personal ad for marriage by 'young wealthy gentleman' results in him being overwhelmed by respondents, he panics and flees with the women in pursuit.
Gaumont (production)
A petty crime that quickly escalates...
Alf Collins (director)
Gaumont (production)
This revenge is not so sweet - quite nasty, in fact - showing that producers learned early that exploiting human fascination with viewing violence can be profitable.
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
Boring film sparks an interesting mystery: where are the gooks?
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Edison (production)
Frenchman places personal ad for marriage, overwhelmed by respondents, panics and flees with the women in pursuit. Remake of Biograph's 'Personal'.
James Williamson (director)
Williamson (production)
A cautionary tale for smartphone addicts.
Lewin Fitzhamon (director)
Hepworth (production)
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!
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Edison (production)
A satirical answer to President Teddy Roosevelt's call for Anglo-Saxon women to keep up with the birth rate of ethnic minorities, or risk 'race suicide'. Mike Judge's 2006 'Idiocracy' essentially makes the same call, and is considered a 'cult classic'. Maybe Teddy's call was ridiculed just because it was ahead of its time.
Siegmund Lubin (director)
Gilbert Saroni (lead)
Lubin (production)
After man places personal ad for marriage, he is overwhelmed by respondents, panics, and flees with the women in pursuit. Remake of Biograph's 'Personal'.
Lewin Fitzhamon (director)
Cecil M. Hepworth (cinematographer/lead)
Margaret Hepworth (lead/writer)
Hepworth (production)
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.
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
Edwin S. Porter (director/cinematographer)
Edison (production)
The two men renown as pioneers of early US cinema, Edwin S. Porter and D.W. Griffith, shared another claim to fame/infamy: each created a work inspired by Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 The Clansman. Griffith's 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was adapted from the stage version of the novel. Edwin S. Porter was inspired by the novel to create this film. According to Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company, Edison advertisements held a pro-vigilante view, proclaiming: A lawless and criminal element almost invariably accompanied the advance guard of civilization and to keep this element in check the law abiding citizens were compelled to secretly organize themselves for their own protection...We have portrayed in Motion Pictures, in a most vivid and realistic manner, the method employed by the “White Caps” to rid the community of undesirable citizens.
While the White Caps role here as Morality Police may seem relatively benign compared to the lynch justice in The Birth of a Nation, the book also points out: This film narrative exactly parallels an earlier account of “White Cap” activity in a turn-of-the-century newspaper. In the newspaper account, the tar clogged up the man's pores and he eventually died.
Edwin S. Porter (cinematographer/director)
Wallace McCutcheon (cinematographer/director)
Edison (production)
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.
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
Edison (production)
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.
Lubin (production)
Arrest, imprisonment, escape, chase...but ending is lost.
R.W. Paul's (production)
1 cop + 1 flirt + 1 kiss = 1 incremental chase.
head city
has waived all rights to all work here that's not stolen from somewhere else.