The Dog and His Various Merits (1908)
Genre :
Runtime : 2M
Synopsis
We see a working dog, a beggar's dog, a shepherd's dog, and a milkman's dog. The working dog is locked inside a large wire wheel; the dog runs inside the wheel, turning it to run a machine. The beggar's dog pulls its legless master, who's sitting on a low cart, down the street. The shepherd's dog keeps a flock of at least 20 sheep in a tight circle. The milkman's dog pulls a cart on which is mounted a large cylinder of milk. A lad leads the dog to a house with a Dutch door; the top half of the door opens, and the lady of the house hands out a pitcher that the boy fills as the dog waits.
Footage shot not long after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco is edited together so that more than one scene and more than one vantage are included. We see fire raging. We see burned-out buildings, piles of rubble, and buildings with only one wall standing. People stand and watch; others walk purposely through the debris. A carriage passes; the camera pans the desolation. A horse-drawn cart is laden with a family's remaining possessions. A sign hangs outside one building: "A little disfigured but still in business. Men Wanted."
During the Alaska gold rush, one way to reach the Klondike was over the Chilkoot Pass. A stationary camera is placed to see a ways down the curving trail. A pack train comes into view and passes in front of us, led by a man on horseback. Eight loaded mules follow, then another cowboy on horseback and a man walking, then eight more laden mules, another cowboy, then nine more mules, a cowboy, and still the pack train stretches as far as the eye can see. A solitary man watches from atop a hillock. (IMDb)
Carmaux is in south-central France, near the Tarn River. As a brick of coke, about four feet high and three feet wide, is gradually pushed out of a smelter into a yard, one worker sprays it with water from a hose while two workers with long metal rakes wait to spread it out. Other workers buzz in and out of the foreground of the stationary camera. Atop the first level of the brick smelter, workers push full carts of coal along a track.
A stationary camera looks across Burgundy's river Sâone toward a small military encampment. Four horsemen enter the water in the foreground, each riding his horse as it swims across toward camp or leading it by the bridle as they swim
Two criminals lure a doctor away from his home with a phony note about a child's illness. After the doctor rushes off, the criminals break into his house and menace his wife and child. By the time the doctor realizes what has happened, his family faces a desperate situation.
The single camera position is from the top of a building identified as the Trocadero Palace; The camera is pointed toward the Eiffel Tower. The film shows only up to the first arch of the Eiffel Tower.
Behind-the-scenes footage showing Alice Guy directing an early sound film.
The work done by men and women at the coal face and the pit head.
Taken in the immense excavation for the foundation of the new Macy building at the corner of Broadway and 34th Street, New York.
A runaway barrel wreaks havoc all over the city.
Nymphs and cupids dance in celebration of the arrival of Spring.
Experimental color film that shows a magician and his assistant making objects and people appear and disappear. Then they stack up some blocks and a moving picture of a little girl appears on them.
Polin performs a song.
A lady uses her maid to lick her stamps, when an overtly excited man notices the maid, forcibly kisses her, and they wind up stuck to each other.
A balding man drinks a whole bottle of hair tonic. The unexpected surplus of hair promises a successful showbiz career for him and his wife.
This short film consists of a crazy old colonel being asked to entertain party guests about his exploits of daring. However, being a totally insane old coot, he runs amok acting out his war-time heroics--smashing and throwing everything in the room!
A pretty maid is out walking and encounters a series of military men, starting with a private, who lose her to higher ranks.
A beautiful panoramic view of lower New York from Barclay Street to Battery Park, showing a beautiful stereoscopic effect of the sky-scrapers in the business section of the city.
Two romantic suitors avoid their wet-blanket chaperone by way of the titular hedge.
Two polite twin gophers are indignant at the swiping of all their vegetables by "vandals" in trucks. They follow the trucks to a food processing plant and become caught in the machinery when they try to retrieve their property.
