The '?' Motorist

The '?' Motorist 1906

6.40

A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.

1906

A Chess Dispute

A Chess Dispute 1903

5.76

A stationary camera looks on as two dapper gents play a game of chess. One drinks and smokes, and when he looks away, his opponent moves two pieces. A fight ensues, first with the squirting of a seltzer bottle, then with fisticuffs. The combatants wrestle each other to the floor and continue the fight out of the camera's view, hidden by the table. The waiter arrives to haul both of them out.

1903

Rough Sea at Dover

Rough Sea at Dover 1896

5.10

The surf pounds against a breakwater on which are visible several people standing. The wall looks to be about 20 feet above sea level and extend at least 100 feet into the water. A large wave rolls picturesquely along the wall toward the shore. Smaller waves follow. Then the scene changes to river water flowing. We see both shores: in the foreground a log and tree branch are visible; on the far shore, there appears to be a low wall with trees beyond it. The camera is stationary in both shots.

1896

An Extraordinary Cab Accident

An Extraordinary Cab Accident 1903

5.73

A man and a woman talk beside a street near a corner where a cop stands. Just as a horse-drawn cart rounds the corner, the man backs off the sidewalk saying good-by to his companion. The horse and cart flatten him and continue on, out of the camera's stationary range. The cop runs after the cab, the woman dashes to the body. The cop brings back the driver; is the victim dead?

1903

An Over-Incubated Baby

An Over-Incubated Baby 1901

4.90

An up to date idea and a great picture. The professor sits in his laboratory with his newly invented baby incubator. A mother who is anxious for the growth of her child enters, places her baby in care of the professor, who promptly places it in the incubator. An alcohol lamp is lighted under the apparatus, but the professor evidently gets his machine too hot, for in a few seconds the top is opened and the baby taken out. To the great anger of its mother it has grown about two feet in height and has long hair and a full beard. (Edison Catalog)

1901

The Countryman and the Cinematograph

The Countryman and the Cinematograph 1901

5.30

A satire on the way that audiences unaccustomed to the cinema didn't know how to react to the moving images on a screen - in this film, an unsophisticated (and stereotypical) country yokel is alternately baffled and terrified, in the latter case by the apparent approach of a steam train.

1901

A Railway Collision

A Railway Collision 1900

4.10

The scene is a railroad track on the side of a steep mountain, with a tunnel in the background, toward which a train is running at a high rate of speed. At this instant the audience is appalled at the sight of a second train rushing out of the tunnel. Both trains are on the same track and traveling toward each other at a high rate of speed. They collide. Cars and engines are smashed into fragments and thrown down the steep incline. (Edison Catalog)

1900

Come Along, Do!

Come Along, Do! 1898

4.70

Come Along, Do! is an 1898 British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by Robert W. Paul. The film was of 1 minute duration, but only forty-some seconds have survived. The whole of the second shot is only available as film stills. The film features an elderly man at an art gallery who takes a great interest in a nude statue to the irritation of his wife. The film has cinematographic significance as the first example of film continuity. It was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "one of the first films to feature more than one shot." In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an art exhibition having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside.

1898

The Haunted Curiosity Shop

The Haunted Curiosity Shop 1901

5.20

An old proprietor is startled and haunted by the strange happenings inside his curiosity shop.

1901

The Arrest of a Bookmaker

The Arrest of a Bookmaker 1895

4.10

A man strolling in a city street is attacked by three assailants. A policeman comes to the rescue and the men struggle with each other.

1895

Incident at Clovelly Cottage

Incident at Clovelly Cottage 1895

2.70

Incident at Clovelly Cottage, also known as Incident Outside Clovelly Cottage, Barnet, shot by Birt Acres and produced by Acres and his collaborator Robert W. Paul in March 1895, was the "first successful motion picture film made in Britain" Considered lost since only a few frames have survived.

1895

The Freak Barber

The Freak Barber 1905

1

A barber cuts heads off Negro and white customers, who then dismember him.

1905

The Waif and the Wizard

The Waif and the Wizard 1901

6.50

The Waif and the Wizard features the same young man who appeared in Undressing Extraordinary (and who might be early filmmaker Walter Booth). It's another early example of a two-shot film along the lines of Paul's earlier film Come Along Do!. The young man plays a magician who, after completing his act, agrees to go home with the young boy from the audience who helped him perform his tricks. At the boy's home he finds a sick sister and a worried mother being threatened with eviction by her landlord.

1901

The Magic Sword

The Magic Sword 1901

6.40

On the roof of an ancient palace appear a young Knight and his lady. While they are making love an ugly old witch appears and is rather troublesome. The Knight commands her to leave, and when he is about to force her away she sits on her broom and rises to the moon. After disappearing she causes various hob-goblins to haunt the pair, the last of them stealing away the lady while the Knight's back is turned. The Knight, frantic with grief, is suddenly confronted by a Fairy, who presents him with a magical sword, and tells him that he can use it to regain the young woman.

1901

Undressing Extraordinary

Undressing Extraordinary 1901

5.33

Here we present a picture that simply convulses an audience with laughter. The scene opens in the bedroom of a hotel. A traveler appears, evidently a "little worse for wear." After stretching and yawning, he proceeds to disrobe. He throws off his coat and vest, but to his surprise and anguish, he suddenly finds himself clothed in a continental uniform. He throws this off in anger, but immediately a policeman's costume flies on him. This is in turn thrown aside in great rage and he finds himself clothed in a soldier's uniform. At last, thinking himself successful, he makes for the bed and finds a skeleton complacently resting on his pillow. The bed suddenly disappears, leaving him seated on the floor, and great quantities of bed clothes rain down from the ceiling. The picture ends leaving the audience simply convulsed in laughter. (Edison Catalog)

1901

Tetherball, or Do-Do

Tetherball, or Do-Do 1898

4.20

Four men of different ranks play a game of tetherball on a ship's deck.

1898

Comic Costume Race

Comic Costume Race 1896

4.50

Three athletes make their way to wicker baskets that contain a mishmash of wacky costumes. They need to dress up as quickly as they can, and make their way back on the running track.

1896