Catching an Early Train (1901)
Article 5641 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-27-2019
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: In reverse

A man needs to dress in time to catch an early train. Will his clothes cooperate?

One thing I wonder about the very early years of film-making is at what point certain novelties started to get old. For example, this movie’s sole trick is a simple one; they filmed a man entering a room, quickly undressing, and jumping into bed, and then ran the footage backwards so it looks like he’s getting up and dressing with the clothes jumping into his hands from wherever they were thrown. Sure, it’s a fun trick if used right, and I’ve seen it used in a few other films, but I wonder if the trick still had a freshness about it at this point. And even at that, it isn’t as fun as the tricks Melies was using at this point in his career.