The Best of 1890-1909
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- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA band-leader assembles an orchestra by mystifying means.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsVictor AndréBleuette BernonA group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsGilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' AndersonA.C. AbadieGeorge BarnesA group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsFernande AlbanyJehanne d'AlcyUsing every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsFrançois ClercBenoît DuvalAn impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyJules-Eugène LegrisGeorges MélièsWith the help of a magic cauldron, Mephistopheles conjures up a variety of supernatural characters.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsIn this fantastic scene, a man who is eager to retire has a difficult time finding peace, as his nocturnal illusions come to life out of thin air.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsAt a solitary cheap inn, a distant traveller overcome with fatigue has a close encounter with the supernatural.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsThe pious St. Anthony is tormented by visions of seductive women.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsJehanne d'AlcyBleuette BernonA young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsThe leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsMarguerite ThévenardBleuette BernonIn this spectacular free adaptation of the popular theatre play "La Biche au Bois", the valiant Prince Bel-Azor pursues a baleful old witch to her impregnable castle, to save the beautiful young Princess Azurine.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsTwo demons throw helpless captives into a boiling cauldron, and then try to summon forth their spirits.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónThree friends go on a trip and decided to rest at an abandoned house. Everything seems pretty normal until really weird things start to happen.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsTwo travelers are tormented by Satan from inn to inn and eventually experience a buggy ride through the heavens courtesy of the Devil.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónFerdinand ZeccaA sorcerer tosses an iridescent little beetle into a flaming ceremonial cauldron, and much to his amazement, a six-winged fairy in the body of a beautiful young woman emerges. Is his sorcery potent enough to tame her?
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsFernande AlbanyJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsKing Edward VII of England and the President of the French Republic, Armand Fallières, envision tunnelling the English Channel; nevertheless, only a maiden voyage can determine whether this is a triumphant aspiration or an acrid nightmare.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsCharles ClaudelOctavie HuvierFrançois LallementA man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.
- DirectorÉtienne-Jules MareyShot of the flight of a fly.
- DirectorLouis LumièreWorkers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonWilliam HeiseStarsAnnabelle MooreAnnabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dance routines. She uses her dance steps and her long, flowing skirts to create a variety of visual patterns.
- DirectorAlfred ClarkStarsRobert ThomaeMrs. Robert L. ThomasThis short film, one of the first to use camera tricks, depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreAuguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsLoie FullerAngelic and demonic serpentine dances from dawn of cinema by the Lumière Brothers film, called the Serpentine Dance. The dancer is Loie Fuller; the pioneer modern dancer. Recorded in 1896 in Paris, and hand-colored frame by frame.
- DirectorLouis LumièrePeople start a snowball fight on a street in Lyons, France.
- DirectorLouis LumièreA skeleton dances joyously, often collapsing into a heap of bones and quickly putting itself back together.
- DirectorWilliam 'Daddy' Paley"Company F, 1st Ohio Volunteers, initiating a new man. Nineteen times he bounces in the blanket, and each toss is funnier than the last one."
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsMlle BarralBleuette BernonCarmelliA fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out?
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsIn a traditional "magician" attire, the wizard of illusion and jump cuts, Georges Méliès, says the magic words and conjures up wonders from a plain wooden box.
- DirectorWilliam Nicholas SeligStarsGertie BrownSaint SuttleA burlesque on the John Rice/May Irwin kiss in "The Kiss" (1896).
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsAn astronomer falls asleep and has a strange dream involving a fairy queen and the Moon.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsLaura BayleyDorothy SmithHarold SmithBrother and sister are sent to bed on Christmas Eve, and while they are asleep, Santa Claus comes down the chimney and fills their waiting stockings with toys.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA magician and his assistant perform numerous magic acts.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsBleuette BernonJeanne CalvièreJehanne d'AlcyA divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsJ. Stuart BlacktonA cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsRight in front of our very eyes, two attractive and feminine women metamorphose into two professional wrestlers who begin a no-holds-barred wrestling match.
- DirectorGeorges Méliès
- DirectorFrederick S. ArmitageTime-lapse photography is used to show the manual dismantling and demolition of New York's Star Theatre over a period of about 30 days.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsAndré DeedThe funniest of all mystical pictures yet produced. Several body parts of a dancing clown float away from his body and come back again.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsIn this trickery extravaganza, Excelsior, the wizard of illusion, pulls out a handkerchief from his pocket, and after that, everything is possible in his rare and spectacular show.
- DirectorWalter R. BoothPierrot draws a lady in sections, and the parts come alive.
- DirectorFerdinand ZeccaDissatisfied with his life, a desperate man decides to make an unholy pact with the Devil, ignoring the seven deadly sins.
- Panoramic view taken from the Suspension Railway at Barmen and Elbefeld, Germany. A marvelous example of engineering work.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsGulliver washes ashore on Lilliput, the inhabitants of which are no more than six inches tall. He later travels to Brobdingnag, a country populated by giants.
- DirectorJames WilliamsonA poor young girl tries to sell matches in a snowstorm. After being robbed by bullies, she lights matches which illuminate visions of a far happier Christmas than the one she faces.
- DirectorJames WilliamsonThe adventures of an inattentive man. He's at his kitchen table, reading. A woman brings his hat and points to the clock. He continues reading and pours coffee into his hat. He leaves, still reading, trips over a servant who's on her hands and knees cleaning the walk. He walks through jump-roping girls, runs into a mule, walks into the only other person on an empty street, and then walks into the path of a steamroller. Two cyclists approach his flattened body. Out come their air pumps, and soon our genial hero has set off again, nose in his book.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonCecil M. HepworthStarsBlairMay ClarkBarbara HepworthA dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.
- DirectorWallace McCutcheonEdwin S. PorterStarsJack BrawnThe fiend faces the spectacular mind-bending consequences of his free-wheeling rarebit binge.
- From the front of a cable car, a motion picture camera records a trip down Market Street, San Francisco, California, from a point between 8th & 9th Streets, Eastward to the cable car turnaround at the Ferry Building.
- DirectorWalter R. BoothA British trick film in which a motorist ends up driving around the rings of Saturn.
- DirectorRobert K. BonineFootage shot not long after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco is edited together so that more than one scene and more than one vantage are included. We see fire raging. We see burned-out buildings, piles of rubble, and buildings with only one wall standing. People stand and watch; others walk purposely through the debris. A carriage passes; the camera pans the desolation. A horse-drawn cart is laden with a family's remaining possessions. A sign hangs outside one building: "A little disfigured but still in business. Men Wanted."
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsPaul PanzerWilliam V. RanousOn a dark and stormy night, a traveler takes a room at a spooky hotel in the forest. As soon as the proprietor leaves, the room comes alive with ghosts and poltergeists who torment the man as he tries to unpack, eat, and go to sleep.
- DirectorCecil M. HepworthStarsGertie PotterBertie PotterA boy breaks his sister's doll and it mends, grows, tears him up and eats him.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonStarsThurston HarrisGertie PotterAs an older man and a youth are eating at the table, the older man decides to amuse himself by using pepper to make the boy sneeze. Later, the boy retaliates by sneaking into the older man's room and putting pepper in his handkerchief, hairbrush, and clothing. But things quickly get out of hand when the sneezing that results begins to disrupt the whole town.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónFerdinand ZeccaStarsJulienne MathieuA demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónA family troupe of acrobats, made up to appear Japanese, perform various unbelievable stunts in front of the camera, achieved through a trick of the camera.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsMlle. BodsonManuelGeorges MélièsAs the clock strikes twelve, a weary astronomer attempts to answer the impertinent enquiries of his young students by scrutinising an impending lunar eclipse, as an effeminate and delicate moon caresses the mighty sun's hungry cosmic rays.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónSome gnomes are searching for a wonderful spider that weaves webs of golden coins. Intent on their search, they are unaware that their movements are closely followed by a poor woodcutter, who also penetrates into their caves when they have caught the spider and imprisoned it there. He watches the wonderful spider making gold and other articles with wonder and in this scene the moving picture camera has excelled itself in turning out some good tricks, and finally he steals the golden spider. He returns to his hut and the spider spins numerous gold coins, but he becomes miserly so that when a poor beggar asks for help he refuses. Immediately his golden hoard changes into a mass of crawling insects and the accusing faces of the gnomes rise in the background.
- DirectorÉmile CohlThe first all-animated film in history, a series of scenes without much narrative structure, but morphing into each other.
- DirectorÉmile CohlThe nightmare of Émile Cohl's chalk animation is one of unreliable appearances. Fishermen catch fish which eat them whole. Ladders transform into coils which just as suddenly take the form of angry mustachioed soldiers. The human figure at the receiving end of these transmogrifications is subject to all manner of degradations. Genuinely unsettling, THE PUPPET'S NIGHTMARE anticipates Don Hertzfeldt's stick-figure fantasias by a century.
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsPaul PanzerFlorence LawrenceJohn G. AdolfiTwo feuding houses are united with the marriage and eventual death of their children.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónStarsSegundo de ChomónJulienne MathieuAn enthusiastic young couple is astounded with modern technology's giant leaps in the fascinating field of electricity.
- DirectorJoseph-Louis MundwillerThis is another one of our famous scenic films which is a revelation of the beauties of the historic Russian city, showing it clad in a blanket of snow and giving us a good view of the many points of interest in and about the place. We get a good view of the famous old Kremlin from different angles, then a view of the city taken from one of the high towers. Next we see Petrovsky Park and some of the main thoroughfares during a heavy blizzard in which the inhabitants go about well muffled up and seemingly undaunted by the severe cold atmosphere.
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsPaul PanzerGladys HuletteA drowsy pipe-smoker attempts to nap, only to be tormented relentlessly by the mischievous Princess Nicotine and her fairy companion.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónIn a medieval palace, an astronomer with a telescope shows the king.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónOn a fine winter morning, an aristocratic couple of city dwellers decide to have a picnic in the great outdoors, however, everything seems to go wrong, all at once.
- DirectorSegundo de ChomónSlippery Jim, a captured pickpocket, is brought into the police station. From the valuable jewelry in his pocket, he is evidenced to be guilty of numerous crimes; thus, the policemen escort him to a jail cell where he is chained up around the ankles. Once they have left, the pickpocket's feet become dismembered and the chains drop off, freeing him. The police, spotting him, try shutting him in a box, but yet again he is able to escape. Fed up with these pranks, they attempt drowning the trickster in the river by tying him up and covering him with a sack, but this proves yet again no use. The pickpocket frees himself of his bondage and jumps out of the river. However, the police catch soon catch on to his trail, and so this time he is pursued on a bicycle which he assembles magically. Using this, he is able yet again to evade them by riding the bike through mid air. Then, taking refuge in an apartment building, he is found once more but mystifies the cops further by disappearing into thin air. Having distracted them by this, he cleverly flattens them between the wall and the door, rolls them up like a scroll, and hurls them out the window. A rag-picker, finding the unfortunate policemen, shakes them out and brings them back into shape. Slippery Jim, seeing this, jumps through the window and lands on the ground safely, but is seized by the cops. They jam him into the rag-picker's basket, and sitting on it so he cannot get out. The prankster takes care of this by seeping through a hole in the basket like a snake, and slithering into the police station, and turning back into a person, he is caught. The police are triumphant, but little do they realize the clever trick the pickpocket has in store for them next.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsFrank PowellFlorence LawrenceGladys EganWhile caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsBilly QuirkMary PickfordJames KirkwoodTwo lovers elope and expect to be pursued by her father. But the clever father has tricked them into running off, and celebrates their wedding when they return home.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsFrank PowellGrace HendersonJames KirkwoodAn unscrupulous and greedy capitalist speculator decides to corner the wheat market for his own profit, establishing complete control over the markets.
- DirectorLucien NonguetFerdinand ZeccaStarsMadame MoreauMonsieur MoreauThe story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.
- DirectorAlice GuyThe life of Jesus Christ in 25 scenes.