年 1908 - 6

A French silent film directed by Louis Feuillade.

Mack Sennett appears as a man in a bar in this film produced by the Biograph Company.

The silent Spanish version of the story of Don Juan Tenorio.

Mack Sennett appears as a policeman in this film produced by the Biograph Company.

The central figure is an old miser, a Harpagon of sorts, who, like Frosine, stashes his ill-gotten money in a secret cellar. While the miser is at the bank, exchanging stolen notes for gold coin, a couple of thugs witness the transaction and see their opportunity-- It seems avarice grips the hearts of all those who'd possess the bag.

Had the poor melancholy Dane, Hamlet, lived in this, the twentieth century, he would never have given voice to the remark, "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" No indeed! He would have procured some of the mysterious fluid compounded by an erudite scientist by which things animate and inanimate were rendered non est, for ten minutes at least, by simply spraying them with it. In an atomizer, he sends a quantity, accompanied by a letter, to his brother. In the hope of his putting it on the market. The brother regards it as a joke, and, while toying with the atomizer, accidentally sprays himself. Presto! he is gone, to the amazement of the messenger boy who has carried the package thither. The boy reads the letter, and at once sees the amount of fun he can get out of it, so he nips it.

A short documentary about industrial whaling. The surviving footage runs for approximately 12 minutes.

The first scene shows part of Flint's old pirate crew, with one-legged John Silver in the lead. They have discovered the hiding place of Billy Bones, the mate of Flint's ship, the "Walrus," and they send Black Dog, one of the crew, to tip Billy Bones to the "black spot" at the Admiral Ben Bow Inn; but Billy Bones drives Black Dog away, and will have nothing to do with him.

At a political club, the members debate whose bust will replace that of Theodore Roosevelt. Unable to agree, each goes to a sculptor's studio and bribes him to sculpt a bust of the individual favorite. Instead, the sculptor spends their fees on a dinner with his model during which he becomes so inebriated that he is taken to jail. There he has a nightmare, wherein three busts are created and animated from clay (through stop-motion photography) in the likenesses of Democrat William Jennings Bryan and Republicans Charles W. Fairbanks and William Howard Taft. Finally an animated bust of Roosevelt appears.

This French film isn't that well known today but it will mainly appeal to those film buffs with a thing for early cinema or those wanting to see some fantasy sequences but those there will probably be disappointed. The film runs just a few seconds short of four minutes as several women are dressed up as bees dancing around their hive. The "Queen Bee" goes to take a nap and she's attacked by a spider. The spider sequence is what gets this film a mention by fantasy fans but sadly this scene takes place around the 3:13 mark and lasts just a few seconds.

What is more miserable than love-blighted life? For the heart that truly loves can never forget. Such is the sad fate of the hero of this Biograph story.

Steampunk fantasia of interplanetary travel and submarine life.

In this simple melodrama, a boy loses his beloved girl, hence dying of a broken heart. The film presents advanced techniques in several fields.

A young woman (Linda Arvidson) is kidnapped by a band of opportunistic Chinese slavers, led by devious Pong Lee (Harry Solter). A resourceful female police operative (Marion Leonard) is determined to rescue her, and tracks the mastermind of the kidnap plot, Hendricks (George Gebhardt). Though successful in her rescue effort, the rescuer ends up being made a prisoner herself. The slavers plan to make her the victim of a pistol shot to be triggered by the hands of a clock. The heroine is rescued by police seconds before the hands of the clock reach the "fatal hour".

1908 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès, which is currently presumed lost

Crime drama involving an Irish couple immigrating to America

A remarkable early short silent movie that shows what may be achieved with the technology of the day. A woman sits in front of her dressing table mirror, looking at her jewellery and her reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, another woman appears in the mirror. As the woman watches, the image changes to other women. As the woman looks at her jewellery, women's faces begin to appear in the jewellery stones.

In this picture we see a man who is vested with authority to enforce the law, but, unlike the usual sort of men occupying the same position, he is so kind-hearted that ofttimes he is governed by his sentiments, and is very indiscreet in meting out just punishment to offenders, He is patrolling in the country, where lawbreakers are not numerous, but once in a while it will happen that somebody is guilty of an act that is not just in keeping with propriety. His first duty is to arrest a pair of lovers whom he catches kissing, but when he comes upon the love-sick couple, and threatens to arrest them, his heart is softened by their tears, so he allows them to go their way with some good advice.

A broken-hearted husband thinks about the past as he sits by the fireplace.