The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery 1903

7.01

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

1903

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland 1903

6.00

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.

1903

The Mystical Flame

The Mystical Flame 1903

4.80

A juggler enters upon the scene, picks up a skull, throws it into the air, catches it in his hands, where it is transformed into a handkerchief. The handkerchief, after being twirled about a wand, is changed to a napkin, and afterward to a tablecloth. Out of the table cloth comes a servant.

1903

The Kingdom of the Fairies

The Kingdom of the Fairies 1903

6.91

At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.

1903

The Infernal Cauldron

The Infernal Cauldron 1903

6.28

A green-skinned demon places a woman and two courtiers into a flaming cauldron.

1903

The Gay Shoe Clerk

The Gay Shoe Clerk 1903

5.50

A woman being fitted for shoes exposes her ankle to the shoe clerk, who is intrigued. He kisses her, but her chaperone hits him with her umbrella.

1903

Les poupées

Les poupées 1903

1

A merchant is giving a demonstration of his lifelike automatons to a bedazzled customer. Could these "larger than life" clockwork figures look too good to be true?

1903

Pierrot et la flûte enchantée

Pierrot et la flûte enchantée 1903

1

Pierrot woos Columbine, who abandons Harlequin. An old witch hands Harlequin a magical flute that will make his wishes come true, whenever it is played. It is now time for Harlequin to play his tricks.

1903

Une scène à l'octroi

Une scène à l'octroi 1903

1

A woman, who tried to smuggle goods under her clothes, is brought to an excise duty office for further inspection.

1903

The Sick Kitten

The Sick Kitten 1903

5.60

A simple scene of two rather flamboyantly-dressed Edwardian children attempting to feed a spoonful of medicine to a sick kitten. The film is important for being one of the earliest films to cut to a close-up, then back again to the same medium shot as before.

1903

Jupiter's Thunderballs

Jupiter's Thunderballs 1903

5.20

With godly entrapments, Zeus appears on the horizon, engages Hermes as an audience, and tries to throw some thunderbolts. They fizzle. Hephaestus tries to make some repairs but succeeds only in heating the bolts and burning Zeus's hands. Zeus conjures nine muses, but do their incantations help? He dismisses them as well as a visiting Pan, and his fits of pique become counter-productive. Can he get his powers back?

1903

Life of an American Fireman

Life of an American Fireman 1903

5.99

Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...

1903

A Romance of the Rail

A Romance of the Rail 1903

4.50

An engaged couple, dressed in white, meet each other at a train station. When the train arrives, they board, and later they enjoy the sights from their car's platform. They are married by a minister and soon, arrive at their destination.

1903

Electrocuting an Elephant

Electrocuting an Elephant 1903

2.58

This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.

1903

The Melomaniac

The Melomaniac 1903

6.55

The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.

1903

Le gendarme et les domestiques

Le gendarme et les domestiques 1903

1

Two housemaids, arguing, start to fight : a houseboy steps in to separate them, and in doing so becomes their target and is literally torn apart. Alarmed by the quarrel, a policeman intervenes. Will order finally be restored?

1903