MOON MAN (1905)
aka Mister Moon
Article 5222 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-5-2016
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Charming trick short

The moon makes faces… and then proves to be a song and dance man.

As you can tell from the above plot description, there really isn’t a plot, but when you get into the world of early silents, you find that a lot. Basically, it’s a special effects short with the moon rising with a human face that performs profuse mugging, and then magically it spots a straw hat and a body, and sings and dances. It’s actually quite charming, at least partially because it’s not really like any other short that I’ve seen from this era; it’s really just a good-natured diversion, and on that level, it works very well.