A CRAZY COMPOSER (1905)
aka Le compositeur toque
Article 4063 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-25-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Another Melies dream short

A manic composer has a dream in which musicians and dancers appear.

It’s another Melies dream short, and taken on its own merits, it’s not particularly special; he’d already done several similar shorts. However, if you do catch this one, I highly recommend you go for the one with the Donald Sosin score; not only does his music fit the action perfectly, but it adds a comic dimension and a flavor that shows just what a difference a decent score can make.

THE COOK’S REVENGE (1900)
aka La vengeance du gate-sauce
Article 4061 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-22-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A cook gets into a fight with his manager. Who will survive… and what will be left of him?

This is a pretty short early Melies piece that mostly trots out decapitation and living head special effects. In the Melies world, decapitations are bloodless and not necessarily fatal; in fact, the heads can reattach and take revenge, as the title says. There’s a bit of a plot, but at one minute, it’s hardly necessary. This is an amusing early short.

THE CLOCK-MAKER’S DREAM (1904)
aka Le reve de l’horloger
Article 4059 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-18-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A clock-maker falls asleep and dreams his clocks have transformed into women.

Some of Melies’s shorts are still pretty fun to watch. However, some of them really can only be appreciated in respect to the time they were made and the novelty of the special effects they were exhibiting. It seems a great deal of care went into this one in terms of making the special effects flow as smoothly as possible, but the lack of anything resembling a story and the somewhat static nature of the tableaus that result leaves us with a somewhat dull short here. It’s similar in some ways to THE BALLET-MASTER’S DREAM, only with less movement. Fortunately, the running time of three minutes keeps this one from overstaying its welcome.

THE CHRISTMAS DREAM (1901)
aka Le reve de Noel
Article 4058 by Dave Sindelar
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Holiday sentiment

Children dream about the holiday on Christmas Eve.

There’s no real plot to this early Melies short; it’s largely a compendium of various scenes illustrating Christmas themes and traditions. The fantastic content includes angels delivering gifts and toys coming to life. There’s the ringing of a bell in a church, and a beggar is allowed to share Christmas dinner with the nobles in an act of goodwill to man. For a Melies film, this is very light on the special effects, and though it’s not a great film, it’s likable enough in its sincerity and artlessness.

CHING LING FOO OUTDONE (1900)
Article 4056 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-14-2012
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Wishful thinking

A magician makes a tub of water appear, and then makes ducks and a young boy appear in the tub.

A read up a little on Ching Ling Foo before I wrote this. This is apparently a reenactment of his most famous magic trick where he would make a boy appear out of a tub of water; the movie throws in some ducks as well. Still, a film of a magician using jump cuts for his illusions simply isn’t in the same league as watching a live magician perform the stunt, so I’d hardly say Ching Ling Foo was seriously outdone here. In fact, the film doesn’t even beat it’s most appropriate competition, which is the similar works from Melies, who, for what it’s worth, is a more energetic and fun actor than the anonymous magician who appears here. Ultimately, this movie is just another Melies imitation.

CHIMNEY SWEEP (1906)
aka Jack le ramoneur
Article 4055 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-13-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Odd little curiosity

A chimney sweep dreams that he is swept to a fantasy land where he is treated as a king. But his real life is less than royal…

I found myself reading the user comments on this movie on IMDB in preparation for trying to tackle my own discussion of it, and somehow I’m not surprised that the movie got two such different reactions. One praised the movie for its political subtext on the horrible treatment of young boys who worked as chimney sweeps in those days; the other dismissed the movie as a dull and confusing muddle. They both have a point; the subtext is certainly there, but it’s nearly impossible to tell if that’s the point of the short. There’s something baffling about the structure of the movie; the first half takes place in the chimney sweep’s dream world, and though there are a number of fantastic images during this bit, nothing is really happening. The second half starts with the chimney sweep being abused, and then finding a hidden fortune in a chimney, which leads to an oddly comic chase scene that leads nowhere. Any individual moment here might be taken on its own terms, but taken all together it simply doesn’t add up to anything that makes sense, especially since nothing seems to be resolved at the end. Melies made a lot of movies that had neither a plot nor a point, but this one feels like it should have both, but doesn’t. Quite frankly, I’ve never been more puzzled by one of his shorts.

THE CHEESE MITES, OR LILLIPUTIANS IN A LONDON RESTAURANT (1901)
Article 4054 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-12-2012
Directed by Walter R. Booth
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Trick film

A diner is startled to discover that there are little people living inside his beer and his wedge of cheese.

For its time, this trick film is pretty bare bones; it really has only one special effect to it, but then, a number of film makers were still trying to catch up to Melies. For me, the most interesting thing is that the diner seems delighted to see these little people popping out of his food. I’m not sure how it was back then, but nowadays I’d be pretty sure that some health regulations were being broken if I found little people living in my supper. Then I’d feel bad about the fact that by consuming the cheese, I’d be eating them out of house and home… literally. These are pretty silly things to be worrying about, but that’s what happens when you’re reviewing a one-minute movie.

CALINO COURTIER EN PARATONNERRES (1912)
aka Calino’s new invention
Article 4005 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-17-2012
Directed by Jean Durand
Featuring Clement Mage, Gaston Modot
Country: France
What it is: silent comedy

Calino is out trying to peddle his new invention – a gigantic lightning rod. However, the huge size of his invention causes destruction and chaos wherever he goes… and when he does find a buyer, the invention has a slight defect…

Here’s another movie that got saved from my “ones that got away” list; it turned out that I had this one all along, but didn’t know it because I hadn’t matched up the English title with the French title. Clement Mage, who plays Calino, may be one of the first authentic comic actors of the cinema. Most of the comedies from earlier than this had a lot of comic shtick, but Mage shows a real assurance with screen comedy just from an acting perspective. The destruction scenes are actually pretty impressive, with a large amount of stunt work for a movie that runs under five minutes. This one is a lot of fun.

LA CAVERNA DE LA BRUJA (1906)
aka The Witch’s Cave, L’antre de la sorciere
Article 3946 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-3-2012
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comic witch tale

An idiot leaves his wife when she breaks a plate over his head. He then goes to the cave of a witch to find a replacement for her.

For the most part, the plot plays little role in this silent short; most of the middle section has the idiot being tormented by various apparitions in the cave, who reappear and disappear at will. Even when the idiot tries to pick out a new wife, he’s still tormented by the fiends. It all leads to a happy ending (I suppose), but, for the life of me, I don’t understand why the wife would want the idiot back if he annoys her so much she breaks plates over his head. Still, I’m no expert on dysfunctional relationships, so we’ll just let that be. All in all, this is a fairly amusing short.

THE COMEBACK (1978)
Article 3927 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-5-2012
Posting Date: 5-15-2012
Directed by Pete Walker
Featuring Jack Jones, Pamela Stephenson, David Doyle
Country: UK
What it is: Horror thriller

A singing star moves into an English country estate and begins work on a new album, unaware that his ex-wife has just been brutally murdered. He begins to have strange visions of her death, but are they just visions…?

Pete Walker has directed some interesting horror movies, some of which I quite like. This one has an interesting premise, a nice touch of mystery, and has a way of unfolding in unexpected ways. It is also rather contrived, especially in the ways it tries to throw suspicion on different characters at one time or another. The movie also has long dead spots in the story; it spends too much time on the “artist trying to make a comeback” storyline, and his involvement with his manager’s secretary. Still, the biggest problem I had with this movie is its ending; after setting up some interesting situations, the final revelations are distressingly ordinary, and the overall story doesn’t hold up under any close examination. I’m afraid I found this one to be particularly disappointing.