Going to Bed Under Difficulties 1900
A man takes off his clothes in preparation for bed, only for new clothes to spontaneously generate, leading to comical consternation.
A man takes off his clothes in preparation for bed, only for new clothes to spontaneously generate, leading to comical consternation.
A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other.
The entire story of Christmastide is here depicted. The scene opens in a large boudoir of an apparently wealthy man's home. His children, assisted by their governess, are about to retire. Before lying down they hang up their stockings on the edge of the bed. The picture changes and night appears. We see the housetops of the town and angels are flying about depositing packages in each of the chimneys. (Edison Catalog)
Madame Ondine performs a serpentine dance surrounded by big cats.
A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.
A man attempts to shave with a blunt razor.
A conjurer (along with two duplicates) conjure up (and then cause to vanish) a beautiful woman head-first.
A turn-of-the-last-century hand-tinted short, which features two women, Miss Lally and Miss Julyett, dancing at a ball. By the legendary French filmmaker Alice Guy.
A series of fantastical wrestling matches.
A family sits down to enjoy a meal that ends up being fraught with complications.
A monkey wreaks havoc on a doctor.
A man misses his train due to his clothes turning into other types of clothes.
George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)
A trio of prankish boarders wreak havoc on their landlady and an intervening policeman.
Columbine resists Pierrette's courting in favour of Harlequin in this hand-coloured short by Alice Guy.
The picture opens with the Sultan lying down to rest on his luxurious cushioned couch. The scene changes to the grounds around the palace.
A landlady is taunted by neighborhood kids.
The fairy at a cabbage patch hovers over the babies. This is a remake of Guy's 1896 film on the same subject, this time shot in 35 mm.
A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
Naval ratings pulling along naval guns during the Boer War.