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.

THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT (1899)
aka Le diable ou couvent
#Article 4069 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-2-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

The devil appears in a convent, and, after frightening some nuns, he conjures up demons and redecorates the place.

No, this isn’t an example of seventies Eurotrash nunsploitation; it’s another Melies short from the silent era. In terms of its basic story, it’s actually quite similar to yesterday’s THE DEVIL AND THE STATUE, but it’s more energetic, more elaborate, and a lot more fun. The special effects come thick and fast in this one, though the imps the devil conjures up don’t partake in any of their trademark tumbling; they mostly just sit there or run around with pitchforks. This is probably the most enjoyable of the various Melies shorts I’ve seen lately.

THE DEVIL AND THE STATUE (1901)
aka Le diable geant ou Le miracle de la madonne
Article 4068 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-1-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A woman is terrorized by a devil who appears out of nowhere and grows to enormous size.

With a two-minute running time, it’s no surprise that the movie has a bare-bones plot; the devil terrorizes a woman, but a statue of the Madonna comes to life and saves her. It’s got one very nice special effect of the devil growing to a huge size. It’s also got a decidedly less special special effect with the statue; it’s basically someone standing very still until the plot requires them to come to life and move, a trick that rarely works. Considering that a substitution camera trick was easily among Melies’s abilities at this point, it’s hard to understand why he chose the approach he did. At any rate, this is an okay short from Melies.

DELIRIUM IN A STUDIO (1907)
aka Ali Barbouyou et Ali Bouf a l’huile
Article 4067 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-31-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comic trick short

An assistant to a painter drinks some varnish by mistake and hallucinates that his master’s painting comes to life.

For the record, only a two minute fragment of this Melies short still exists, but it looks to be the last two minutes of the short, and it opens with a short intro explaining the opening action. I’d say the remaining footage is the main part of the short; we see the woman in the painting moving around before she settles back into the painting, and we see the horrible revenge that the painter exacts on his assistant. Eventually, the shot moves from fantasy into horror territory involving a decapitated man rising from the dead and carrying his head around. What’s left of this one is fairly amusing.

THE DANCING MIDGET (1902)
aka La danseuse microscopique
Article 4064 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-27-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Melies magic short

A magician uses his comic relief servant to produce several eggs, from which he produces a tiny dancer.

I’m beginning to think that many of Melies’s shorts can easily be pigeonholed into several types. On top of his epics, there’s his dream movies and his magic shorts, this being one of the latter. These always feature a magician coming on and doing a handful of cinema-enhanced magic tricks. This is a fairly typical example; it’s entertaining, but nothing special.