A NIGHTMARE (1896)
aka Le cauchemar
Article 4232 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-18-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Very early trick film

A man dreams that a beautiful woman appears on his bed… but she turns into a minstrel and then a clown, and then things get weird.

One of Melies’s common motifs was of the innocent bystander (or, in this case, bysleeper) who is befuddled and put out by the transformations made possible by the use of special effects. This may be the first such example of this type of movie, as our sleeper is startled by the sudden appearance of a beautiful woman, who suddenly turns into a minstrel singer, and then a clown. Then the moon tries to eat his arm, so the sleeper has to punch the moon back to its proper place in the sky. It’s simple and short, and sets a template that he would return to several times. As such, it is historically one of his more important films, and it is quite entertaining in its own way as well.

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN (1938)
Article 4229 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-15-2013
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Margaret Hill-Talbot
Country: USA
What it is: Animated lesson in bravery

A young cat must take over his father’s night watchman duties in the kitchen due to the latter’s illness. There he encounters a gang of tough, bullying mice. Will he be brave enough to face them down?

Let’s face it; in animated cat-and-mouse stories, cats are rarely the heroes; they’re mostly portrayed as scary monsters terrorizing these cute little mice. Occasionally, it’s been pointed out to me that in real life, people would probably prefer to have a cat around than to have their homes overrun with mice. Well, here’s an example that reverses the usual animated approach; the cat is the sympathetic character, and the mice are ugly and brutal, and you’re looking forward to the moment when the cat gains the courage to give them their comeuppance. Granted, in order for this to work, the mice have to be bigger than the cat (which they are), which, come to think of it, is why mice are usually the more sympathetic characters in these cartoons, because they’re the tiny ones. This is a typical example of early Chuck Jones, with more of an emphasis on whimsy than outright humor; in fact, the cartoon emphasizes the story over the bits of humor that do appear. This is still not the Warner Brothers animation department at its best, but one can definitely see an improvement over the revue-styled entertainments they churned out only half a decade earlier.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1905)
Article 4228 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-13-2013
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Christmas tale

Santa prepares for his yearly journey, and so do the children waiting for him.

This is a charming little Christmas short, alternating scenes of Santa preparing for his journey and scenes of a family preparing for Santa’s arrival. It’s simply conceived; we see scenes of Santa feeding the reindeer, making toys, and checking his naughty/nice list mixed with scenes of the children hanging up their stockings, trying to sneak out of bed, and having a pillow fight. The best scene in the short is a continuous special effects shot of Santa and his reindeer trotting through the landscape on their way to deliver the presents. The scene also answered a nagging question I had. If Santa doesn’t have any help (he’s seen working alone in each of his scenes), how can he possibly get all the work done in time? Well, the answer is simple. During the delivery sequence, we see Santa bypassing several places (including a whole city) without stopping or even slowing down. I can only conclude from this that there were a lot more naughty children than nice ones on this particular year, thereby making it unnecessary for him to employ the extra elf help that is his wont. And, considering that he makes toys the old-fashioned way, it’s good that he has enough magic to decorate the whole tree with a sweep of his hand; the last thing I wanted to see was Santa spending ten minutes hanging tinsel.

NEPTUNE’S DAUGHTERS (1900)
Article 4226 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-11-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Trick dance short

Ghosts turn into dancing girls who ply their trade while superimposed over a ship.

Back when I saw DAVEY JONES’ LOCKER (which consisted of footage of a dancing skeleton superimposed over a ship), I was mostly taken by the pointlessness of the exercise. This one manages to be even slightly less interesting. According to IMDB, it was edited from another short called BALLET OF THE GHOSTS by superimposing the ship image with that one. Let’s write it off as another dancing girl short, and move on, shall we?