Movies 1907 - 1908

Originally posted to Facebook on 2/2/2016

This week we watched films from 1907 and 1908. They were:

The Golden Beetle
The Red Spectre
The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon
Ben Hur
The Thieving Hand
The Electric Hotel
Troubles of a Grass Widower
The Adventures of Dollie

George Melies had only one film represented this week (The Eclipse), while Segundo de Chomón had three: The Golden Beetle, The Red Spectre, and The Electric Hotel. We also saw the first film by D.W. Griffith this week. We watched all of the films on Saturday, but took a break between the four from 1907 and the four from 1908. At initial glance the films chosen for 1907 seemed to be a bit of a regression from last week. The two Segundo de Chomon were very reminiscent of early Melies films: single sets, various camera tricks, and no particular narrative. The actual George Melies film (The Eclipse) was more typical of his later work, in that it had a narrative and multiple scenes, though still stagebound. The last and longest of the 1907 films was Ben Hur. This is not the famous silent version of Ben Hur from 1925, but an earlier version which lasts 15 minutes. It does seem like a certain fraction of early silent films relied upon the audience being familiar with the plot ahead of time, and this may have been one of those cases. I am only dimly aware of the plot of Ben Hur, so I found parts a little mystifying. The famous chariot race is present though, and had several four-horse teams galloping past the fixed-in-place camera.

When we came back and watched the 1908 films, we had somewhat better luck. Segundo de Chomón’s film from this year (The Electric Hotel) was more interesting than his 1907 films. It mixed stop motion and live action. I have no idea if this was unprecedented or not, but it was certainly the earliest film in which I’ve seen the effect. Both The Thieving Hand and Troubles of a Grass Widower were comedies, but with coherent narratives. The latter starred Max Linder, who apparently was an influence on Charlie Chaplin. The plot revolved around him having to live without his wife for a few days, and failing at common household chores. It didn’t strike me as particularly amusing, but Linder did have a certain charisma. The Thieving Hand was stranger and a little funnier. It involved a one-armed man buying a replacement arm with a mind of its own at a strange body-parts store.

The last film we saw was The Adventures of Dollie, which was the first film directed by D.W. Griffith. The plot involved the kidnapping of a girl, and her eventual return to her parents. It was not the most gripping of stories, but was clearly told, and didn’t rely upon any significant background knowledge.

Next week we finish up the first decade of the twentieth century, watching films from 1909 and 1910. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT. I’ve added films through the end of March, which takes us through 1913, and into the first real feature length films.