Works, By Date: 1910-1919 (216)

Total: 364 works

Max Takes A Bath (Max prend un bain)

Max does a nervous twitch so effectively, it is almost contagious. When doctor prescribes hot baths, Max buys a tub which, hilariously, leads to a wall-scaling chase, as first seen in the 1906 "The ? Motorist", adding to the the wonderful absurdity of it all.

Max In Search Of A Sweetheart (Max Cherche une Fiancee)

Max gets into trouble when he sends two girls the same poem. This idea is revisited in a wacky way in the 1917 "Max The Heartbreaker".

A Shy Youth (Les timidités de Rigadin)

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.

How Greediness Spoilt Foolshead's Christmas (Come fu che l'ingordigia rovinò il Natale a Cretinetti)

Capturing the true spirit of the celebration - greed - Cretinetti destroys Christmas, taking out Santa, angels, and saints in a Méliès-style fantasy of riotous excess.

Max Is Stuck Up (Max Ne Se Mariera Pas)

Max has an important dinner date, but things get a bit sticky. In other comedies, the fly paper gag felt more frustrating than funny. But the humor here lies in Max's attempts to hide his difficulties, which just compounds the problem - a core trait of Max.

The Musketeers of Pig Alley

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.

The Water-Funker (La peur de l'eau)

Max's romance is derailed by a challenge to his fear of water. Only two comic moments: this first one at 9 minutes. The final comic moment (at 13 minutes) is Max in his best manic form. It's even more impressive because it is preceded by a chillingly grim portrayal of broken-hearted depression: like a cinematic display of manic-depression.

Dr Brian Pellie and the Secret Dispatch

This is the final 2 minutes of the 10-minute video described at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1114609/synopsis.html. It features a reenactment of the 1909 Tottenham chase, that began with a robbery by anarchists, set in a fictional tale of spies.

The Curse of Quon Gwon

Featuring rich costumes and the conflict between tradition and modernism (a theme that, 10-20 years later, would become a staple of the Shanghai film industry), it's a pity so little remains of this.

The Silent Man

Surprise: this drops Hart's standard cowboy-changed-by-a-woman formula. Bigger surprise: it's a total mess...

  • 52 words of highfalutin prose on 3 title cards in the first 40 seconds to describe...nothing: Gee, the desert is awfully empty!
  • It gets worse. From the 90-second mark until 3 minutes in, there's never more than 6 seconds between title cards. Since the title cards are onscreen 5-9 seconds, most of time is spent reading, not viewing. The barrage of titles doesn't slow to a more reasonable pace until 5-6 minutes in.
  • But just when the titles let up, the action on screen in this video gets hopelessly muddled: the hero fights the villain, tries to escape, but somehow ends up out cold on the floor. The next time we see him, a fortnight later, he is followed by a man with a rifle who tells him: “You're turned loose, stranger,” - apparently, he's been jailed but we're not told why.
  • The hero's version of later events doesn't seem to agree with what is shown on screen.
  • When the hero next encounters the villain, he gets his revenge by forcing him to...do something that seems pointless and of no benefit.
  • Both the heroine's-little-brother subplot and the parson's-church subplot are never made to feel relevant - and are never shown to be resolved.
  • Worse of all, the resolution of the main conflict, between hero and villain, is the worst kind of script cop-out.
And then there is the biggest unresolved mystery: why is the hero called “Silent” when he is no more silent than anyone else in this silent film?

Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman

For any hardcore fan of suavecito-smooth, the first few minutes of Barrymore profiling is a fun ride. But it quickly gets old and repetitive. And any hope for mystery is dashed when it becomes apparent that every kid on the block knows that Raffles is "secretly" the Amateur Cracksman. And those who don't know, he reveals it to them. With a villain with no real commitment to skulking or skullduggery, and a story with none of the twists and turns of Fantomas flicks, there's nothing much to see here but the stereotypical American imitation of upper-class British.

Lanka Dahan

Five minutes of a weeping heroine, a mustache-twirling villain, and a monkey-faced voyeur hanging from trees in his underpants: who could ask for anything more?

Birth of Shree Krishna (Shree Krishna Janma)

Judging from this clip, initially Shree Krishna's song and dance act (which looks like Little Stevie Wonder's) didn't go over too well. Happily, instruction is provided on how to deal with irritating song and dance acts (Note: a spare cauldron of boiling oil is required).