Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Magic of Méliès (1904-1908)

Contents: Le roi du maquillage [The Untamable Whiskers] (1904), Sorcellerie culinaire [The Cook in Trouble] (1904), Le thaumaturge Chinoise [Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer] (1904), Le merveilleux eventail vivant [The Wonderful Living Fan] (1904), Le sirène [The Mermaid] (1904), Les cartes vivantes [The Living Playing Cards] (1905), Le diable noir [The Black Imp] (1905), La chaise à porteurs enchantée [The Enchanted Sedan Chair] (1905), Le tripot clandestin [The Scheming Gamblers Paradise] (1905), Les affiches en goguette [The Hilarious Posters] (1905), L’alchimiste parafaragamus ou la cornie infernale [The Mysterious Retort] (1906), L’eclipse [The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and the Moon] (1907), La colle universelle [Good Glue Sticks] (1907) and La photographie électrique à distance [Long Distance Wireless Photography] (1908).

This second of two DVD compilations culled from the 1994 five-videocassette collection The Movies Begin, produced by David Shepard and released by Kino International, is part of an overview history lesson for film buffs. This DVD program at hand is lifted wholesale from cassette four of that Kino collection and was also previously available on a 1995 laserdisc and is available on DVD.

— Carl Bennett

The Untamable Whiskers (1904) utilizes a series of dissolves between shots of character makeup on Méliès. He draws the intended character on a blackboard then poses as the makeup appears on his face. The Cook in Trouble (1904) is another example of a wizard and Méliès’ stop-action demons causing havoc in a cook’s kitchen. Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer (1904) features Méliès in Chinese garb and makeup performing stop-action magic.

The Wonderful Living Fan (1904) is a costume piece with a man of royalty being entertained by a large fan that transforms into a fan of beautiful women. The Mermaid (1904) does more of Méliès’ trademark stop-action conjuring before the film turns to its real subject, a mermaid that turns into woman followed by Méliès transforming into Poseidon for the final tableaux. In The Living Playing Cards (1905) Méliès turns a playing to a live queen and back again, before making a king come alive and a surprise ending. The Black Imp (1905) appears to use the same set as another Méliès film . . . another demon causes trouble for a hotel patron.

The Enchanted Sedan Chair (1905) features an unusual combination of dissolve and cutting to create a transformation effect and some very smooth cutting effects. The Scheming Gamblers Paradise (1905) features a gambling parlor that transforms in a matter of seconds when the police are around. The police appropriate the hall for their own use. The Hilarious Posters (1905) features a transformation of paper posters into a series of living characters, but is also the kind of nonsense that 1905 audiences were beginning to get bored with. The Mysterious Retort (1906) a wizard, a snake, an imp, a spider, an apparition and a beautiful woman. What more could you want from a Méliès film?

The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and the Moon (1907) harkens back to Méliès’ earlier fantastical excursions, and may feature the earliest use of intertitles in a Méliès film. Great expressions on the sun’s face. In Good Glue Sticks (1907) two policemen break up the activities of a street merchant selling glue. When the policemen fall asleep on a park bench, the merchant gets his revenge by gluing the two policemen together. In Long Distance Wireless Photography (1908) Méliès is a scientist who demonstrates his new invention.

Ignoring the older prints used in the Méliès documentary, the materials utilized for the video transfers of the short films range from very good to excellent. The print of The Cook in Trouble suffers from occasional frame jitters. Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer looks as though it was restored from a Library of Congress paper print, which is not a shortcoming. Many of the paper prints held by the Library of Congress have been recopied to 35mm restoration negatives and look almost indistinguishable from original filmstock prints. The Black Imp appears here in a much-improved print from the one utilized for the documentary.

Overall, the program’s appeal is brought down by the documentary, but the generous number of quality Méliès’ films include here makes the disc a worthwhile addition to the silent film enthusiasts’ collection. The edition has been reissued on DVD-R disc.

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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other EARLY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.