TOM, TOM, THE PIPER’S SON (1905)
Article 4287 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-13-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Chase film

A piper’s son named Tom steals a pig at the local fair. Villagers give chase.

Let’s discuss the fantastic content first. First, I’m going to quote a line from the plot description on IMDB. “… Tom has some tricks up his sleeve that might give him a chance to escape…”. The description is attributed to someone named Snow Leopard, but I’m wondering if the description is pretty close to whatever Walt Lee read when he picked this one out to be included in in “Reference Guide to Fantastic Films” because his description of the fantastic content is one word – “Tricks”. Well, there’s tricks and then there’s tricks, and the types that Tom uses in this short are decidedly non-magical; they include things like hiding in a bail of hay while his pursuers run past him and climb up a ladder, then pushing the ladder away. In fact, to my eyes, there is no fantastic content whatever in this short.

That being said, this is also one of the worst directed and edited silent shorts I’ve ever seen. For example, the opening scene is almost two minutes of people milling around a fair; there’s a high wire act and a juggler on hand, but there’s no way to tell if you’re supposed to be focused on them, and the overall feeling is that nothing happens during the sequence until someone runs off with the pig. Every succeeding scene goes on way too long, and though the events are supposed to be humorous, the humor is compromised by the movie’s inability to know when enough is enough; it’s mildly funny that the whole crowd chases the boy up a chimney, but you don’t need to see every single person involved in the chase climb out of the chimney and jump to the ground. The movie’s about eight minutes long and could have been told easily in three. This one is not recommended.

THAT FATAL SNEEZE (1907)
Article 4285 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-8-2013
Directed by Lewin Fitzhamon
Featuring Thurston Harris and Gertie Potter
Country: UK
What it is: Comic shenanigans

A nephew takes revenge on his uncle by putting pepper in his clothing, accessories, and grooming devices. The uncle then finds himself given to a succession of increasingly destructive sneezes.

One of the side issues I like to explore in my viewing project is to consider the bounds of genre content, and the Walt Lee guide gives some examples of movies that are interesting in that regard. Though it rejects a number of movies with things like fake ghosts, it also includes movies that might be rejected by other genre guides because the fantastic content falls within the bounds of the conventions of the movie’s primary genre. For example, it could be argued that most musicals are fantasies because people breaking out spontaneously in song is not realistic, while it could also be argued that such actions don’t really count as fantastic content because that’s simply the convention of the musical form. The same could be said about this short; though the idea that sneezes could cause this much destruction could make it qualify as a work of fantasy, it could also be dismissed as being within the limits of the convention of comic exaggeration. Still, when the sneezes get violent enough to cause earthquakes, the concept of comic exaggeration does get a little extreme. At any rate, this is a pretty amusing short that turns at least partially into a chase movie, though the chase is abandoned for the climax.

TEN LADIES IN AN UMBRELLA (1903)
aka La parapluie fantastique
Article 4284 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-7-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Melies magic short

A magician performs tricks, most of which involve making women appear from an umbrella.

Much as I love the work of Melies, his endless succession of magic trick shorts do grow tiresome after a bit, and watching this one right after TCHIN-CHAO, THE CHINESE CONJUROR (which also involved people appearing from behind a parasol), it’s difficult to shake the “been there, done that” feel. Granted, the transitions are quick and effective in this one, and he does make ten ladies appear from the umbrella (I counted). Still, there’s moments that do drag on a bit where he stops doing tricks and is trying to interact with the ladies. At any rate, here’s another one to cross off the list.

TCHIN-CHAO, THE CHINESE CONJUROR (1904)
Article 4283 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-6-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Chinese magic

A Chinese magician performs tricks.

So what separates this Melies “magic trick” film from his others? Well, outside of the fact that Melies and his actors get to dress up as Chinamen, use Chinese props, and perform against an Oriental background, not a whole lot. Still, that’s enough to add a little novelty to the mix, and given how often Melies drew from this particular well, any novelty is welcome. In all other respects, this is a pretty ordinary Melies short.

TARZAN OF THE APES (1918)
Article 4282 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-5-2013
Directed by Scott Sidney
Featuring Elmo Lincoln, Enid Markey, True Boardman
Country: USA
What it is: A Tarzan movie, what else?

A British Lord and Lady end up stranded in Africa, and the woman gives birth to a son. When they both die, the child is reared by apes. Years later, and expedition is undertaken to discover the fate of the couple and to find the boy.

Given how many Tarzan movies I’ve already covered for this series, it’s a little amazing that I only now am covering this one; it is, after all, the first one made, is fairly well known, and is extant. The reason for this is that the source from which I culled most of the other Tarzan titles gives this one an incorrect year; I think it meant to place it in 1917, but reversed the last two numbers so it says 1971. From what I gather, this is the version of Tarzan that is closest to how he was envisioned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He’s wild and savage, but does have some command of the English language, and Elmo Lincoln gives a fine performance in the role, as does Gordon Griffith as a young Tarzan (his sequences take up nearly half of the movie). Yet, I do feel I have to reserve judgment on this one. The version I saw of it has no musical soundtrack, and though I’ve seen other silent movies under the same circumstances, this is one of those movies that cries for a musical accompaniment. Without one, it feels rushed and confusing, and it’s rather difficult to connect with the story. However, one thing I will comment on is that Hollywood would get a lot better with their gorilla suits over time; though there are a lot of people in ape suits, only one is supposed to be a gorilla per se, and if they hadn’t told me it was a gorilla, I wouldn’t have had a clue to what it was.

THE TALE OF THE ARK (1909)
Article 4278 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-31-2013
Directed by Arthur Melbourne Cooper
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Stop-motion take on Biblical tale

A child dreams that Noah emerges from her toy model of the ark, and calls the animals together to avoid the flood.

This is one of the more elaborate stop-motion experiments in early cinema, as Noah and all the animals appear to be animated dolls, possibly made of clay. The fantastic elements have to do with the way the animals are handled; the elephants spend much of their time on two feet cavorting in un-elephant like ways, and certainly the way the animals all line up on their own seems fantastic enough. It’s a pretty charming and delightful way to tell the story, with little comic touches like Noah having trouble setting the gangplank and being helped by one of the elephants. All in all, this one is quite entertaining.