THE DEVILISH PLANK (1904)
aka La planche du diable
Article 4070 by Dave Sindelar
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Melies magic short

A magician performs some tricks with two hollow barrels attached to a plank.

Here’s another of Melies’s magician shorts; these are the ones where a magician performs a magic act using cinematic tricks. In this case, the seemingly empty barrels turn a couple of clowns into a couple of footmen (by changing their clothes), and then produce a couple of women, who vanish back into them. For this point in Melies’s career, this is pretty bare bones stuff.