THE ANIMATED POSTER (1903)
Article 4809 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-30-2015
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Comic short

A man has a run-in with a resident of the building on which he’s been putting up burlesque posters.

This title was recently consigned to my “ones that got away” list, and at the time I did so, I commented that the plot description on IMDB certainly made it sound as if there was no real fantastic content to speak of. Shortly after that, someone posted a link to a YouTube video of the short, so I could check it out first-hand. And sure enough, I was right. The Walt Lee guide describes a “poster coming to life”, but what happens in the short is that the head of the woman on a burlesque poster is plastered over a window. When the woman in the building opens the window, her head is positioned in place of the head on the poster. It’s a cute trick, and the short is amusing enough, but it really doesn’t make any attempt to convince anyone that the poster has come to life. So let’s call this one another false lead in my continued quest.