FAT AND LEAN WRESTLING MATCH (1901)
aka Nouvelles luttes extravagantes
Article 4108 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-16-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Jeanne D’Alcy and Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Comic trick short

Two wrestling matches are featured. The second features a fat wrestler pitted against a thin one.

The film opens with two women of about the same size, but those in the hope of witnessing some female wrestling will be disappointed, as they turn into men before the match begins. So who would win in a wrestling match helmed by Georges Melies? Why, it’s whoever doesn’t get turned into a big rag doll at the crucial time; the latter gets torn limb from limb. Fortunately, cartoon violence rules apply; those who are torn limb from limb come back together to fight another day. The effects are obvious, but this is one of the funnier shorts that Melies directed.