1908 - El Hotel Electrico

El Hotel Electrico set to music by Burial

Title: El Hotel Electrico
Release Date: 19 December 1908
Directed by: Segundo de Chomon
Starring: Segundo de Chomon, Julienne Mathieu
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000516/
My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★


Do yourself a favor and watch this flick! This film solidifies Segundo de Chomon as one of my favorite directors of the early 1900s (that's him as the lead role by the way, what a fox!). Obsessed with trick photography, music, dancing, beautiful women & optical illusion his films are all so beautifully hand colored and just so fucking charming (in Bob's Electric Theatre, with really great stop motion photography, he has two granny dolls kicking the crap out of each other. Hilarious!). 

OTHER FILMS BY SEGUNDO DE CHOMON THAT I HAVE SEEN
The Pearl Fisherman (dir. Ferdinand Zecca / cinematography by Chomon) (1904)
The Hen that Laid the Golden Egg (dir. Gaston Valle / cinematography by Chomon) (1905)
L'ecrin du Raja (dir. Gaston Valle / special fx by Chomon) (1906)
Bob's Electric Theatre (1906)
Les Roses Magique (1906)
Box of Cigars (1907)
Les Kiriki (1907)
Satan s'amuse (1907)
Excursion en la Luna (1908)
Sculpteur Moderne (1908)
Les Lunatiques (1908)

19?? - A Woman's Vengeance

Title: A Woman's Vengeance
Release Date: Sometime between 1916-1934
Directed by: Harry Moody
Starring: Fritzi Ridgeway, the girl with a thousand personalities
IMDB: none
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

Basic plot. Woman's father receives a note saying there's a piece of land with gold on it, and to come right away to stake his claim. Father goes, leaving the daughter behind with the brother and the smarmy neighbor. Father trusts the wrong people and gets shot on his journey. Daughter, who also happens to be an experienced gun slinger, vows revenge. Fritzi Ridgeway does a great job, though the film moves slow in some parts.  She even does some pretty incredible stunts including taking a six foot plunge (at least), face first down a mountain. You go girl!

I was able to find very little written about this movie, which means I'm having to speculate most things. According to her wiki page, Fritzi worked between 1916-1934, so I can narrow the film down to that 18 years. She looks pretty young and fresh, so I'd venture to say it was filmed pre-1920. The title card says it was directed by Harry Moody, though his imdb page doesn't claim it.

1908 - A Christmas Carol

Title: A Christmas Carol
Release Date: 1908
Directed by: Unknown
Starring: Tom Ricketts
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233449/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩


The first known film adaptation of Charles Dickens 1843 novella starred Tom Ricketts--a theatrically trained actor who was in nearly 200 films and directed almost 150. The seeds of Rickett's success as a great Shakespearean actor can perhaps be seen in a sequence here in which Ebenezer Scrooge, after being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, experiences a bout of "want and misery". 

Watching this today, what I found most interesting is the way the ghosts were handled. Every time a ghost would appear to Scrooge, the ghost would be double exposed giving of course a transparent look to the ghost. But what I thought was cool is that the entire memory itself would be double exposed on top of that, so there were often three layers working together to tell the story. I haven't ever seen the story told this way before, and it just made me smile to think of the meeting in which they come up with this idea. How proud they must have been. 

OTHER CHRISTMAS FLICKS I JUST WATCHED

1898

Santa Claus and the Children - This film from the UK marks the first time our good friend Sanny Claus was depicted in film. To me he looks more like a sage, elderly wizard-boxer. I'm glad they fattened him up!

                           

1905

The Night Before Christmas (dir. Thomas Edison) - This is the first time this poem by Clement Moore was ever filmed. My favorite sequence is when the title card appears "The Children Were Nestled All Snug in Their Beds..." and this happens:

1909

A Trap For Santa Claus (dir. DW Griffith) - I was only able to find the first 4 minutes of this 16 minute film online, but if that's any indication it seems amazing. Already, the father is a drunkard who is unemployed (hello my life). His wife is left at home raising his two manish daughters while he unsuccessfully tries to find work. At the top of the 4th minute, he's just left his wife and children from shame and the children have just hatched a plan to trap Santa Claus into coming to their house. I imagine it all ends well, and I'm really starting to love DW Griffith.  BUT, I do believe his children were played by short women (possible nuggets) rather than actual children. Proof (the one on the right is supposed to be his daughter):

Title: The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus

Release Date: 19 December 1914
Filmed For: The Edison Studios
Starring: Barry O'Moore (Herbert Yost), Bliss Milford, John Sturgeon, Elsie MacLeod
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227995/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

I really enjoyed this ten minute film about a burglar who dresses up as Santa Claus in order to steal a family's presents, and the Detective who catches him and then finds love with the family daughter. Apparently this was the 12th in the Octavius, Amateur Detective series. I'll have to remember to find the others. 

I'd recap this movie, but I have discovered a hilarious recap already by Jordon Davis which you can find here!