UNUSUAL COOKING (1908)
aka Cuisine magnetique, Cuisine abracadabrante
Article 4079 by Dave Sindelar
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: A bad cutlery Busby Berkeley nightmare

A bizarre dance number is performed with giant cutlery.

It starts out like a typical Melies magic short, but it rapidly evolves into something even weirder. Before long, we have cooks of all sizes and shapes dancing with giant knives, forks and spoons. We also have the cutlery becoming anthropomorphosized (which is to say, given faces, arms and legs) along with the pans. The only cooking involves one of the cooks being dismembered and thrown into a pot, which, I will admit, does qualify for the “unusual” adjective. It’s all pretty plotless, but there’s a real demented charm to this strange short, and may be on of Chomon’s best.