Rough Sea (1900)
Genre :
Runtime : 1M
Director : James Bamforth
Synopsis
One minute of waves crashing.
Two romantic suitors avoid their wet-blanket chaperone by way of the titular hedge.
A thief jumps a fence and removes the shutter from a house. He enters, but a lad who's witnessed the crime runs off to hail the coppers. The first officer on the scene climbs the fence, enters the house, and is soon fighting with the thief on the roof. Falling from the roof, the officer is injured and requires an ambulance. Meanwhile, the thief flees, pursued by more men in blue.
With a crowded arena in the background, a stationary camera records a bull charging a picador astride his horse. An attendant on foot throws stones at the rump of the horse to get it to move. Various toreadors run past the bull to try to get him to charge or at least run about.
A gardener is watering a garden. A prankster stands on his hose halting the flow until he looks at the nozzle and gets a stream of water to the face. He notices the prankster and gives him his comeuppance. Remake of the Lumiere film Arroseur et arrosé.
Alfred Butterworth and Sons
Columbine resists Pierrette's courting in favour of Harlequin in this hand-coloured short by Alice Guy.
In slow motion, a line of giddy, possibly drunk men dressed in Scottish highland outfits perform a disorderly dance routine in front of a sign advertising the product of the title. This film is often incorrectly described as the first filmed advertisement.
A fighting couple gets interrupted by the landlady.
A barmaid plies a swell with smiles and with cherries from a box that's just been delivered. When she refuses a cherry to a roughly-dressed tradesman who runs a tab at the bar, he pays off his debt in a huff, using all his week's pay. He then storms penniless and without provisions into his ill-furnished house where his wife and two children, ill-clad and ill-fed, cower. Is there any hope for him and for his family? If he does realize how low he's sunk, what help is there to lift him up? Will the family ever know the taste of cherries?
A stationary camera looks west across Niagara Falls from the United States' side (the Niagara River rushes toward the falls from right to left). Virtually overlooking the falls and surrounded by the swift current not far from the camera is a small island where six or eight tourists watch the water, talk, and move about.
Two women in long skirts, wearing hats, and carrying umbrellas, gossip beside a fence. Two men on the other side of the fence reach through from underneath and nail the women's skirts to the boards. Off the men run leaving the women to discover their fate. What will they do?
An old maid is walking about the studio while the photographer is getting his camera ready. She first looks at a hanger, which immediately falls from the wall, not being able to stand her gaze. Then she looks at the clock, and her face causes it to fall to the floor with a crash. She then walks over to the mirror, which suddenly cracks in several places. The photographer then poses her. Just as he is to press the button the camera explodes with a great puff of smoke, completely destroying the camera and demolishing the studio. The picture finishes up with the old maid tipping back in her chair and losing her balance, displaying a large quantity of fancy lace goods.
Two Boers shoot and rob a sentry.
Cunard Vessel at Liverpool
A film from the UK based Mitchell & Kenyon.
This is a news actuality film of the former Commander in Chief of the Boer War, Lord Roberts, visiting Manchester to much hoopla.
The film opens on a dressing room set with a mirror, dressing table, and chair center stage and a folded dressing screen on the left. A smiling, dark-haired woman enters through the door on stage right, unbuttoning a full-length polka-dot costume. As she undresses, she frequently looks directly at the camera and smiles. She removes her sash or cummerbund, the top with its trailing sleeves, and her skirt, leaving her clothed only in a sleeveless chemise. Smiling directly at the camera, she mischievously slips a strap of the garment off one shoulder, then ducks behind the screen.
Manchester Street Scene
Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham