Bold Bank Robbery (Lubin, 1904)
Siegmund "Pop" Lubin is remembered today perhaps as one of Edison's chief rivals in the patent wars of the turns of the last century. Lubin was based in Philadelphia, and is all too often referred to in the history books only for his "remakes" (rip-offs) of popular Edison titles.It's true that the Lubin company turned out some pretty audacious imitations (their version of "The Great Train Robbery", released a year after Edison's version), but along the way, Lubin turned out some pretty interesting films which deserve to be evaluated on their own terms.One such picture is "Bold Bank Robbery", made in 1904 by Jack Frawley (who also wrote and shot the picture). The film

Hollywood 2010: A Century of Hollywood Cinema
2010 is the 100th anniversary of filmmaking in the town that, more than any other single place, person or event, has come to represent the medium of film.I am writing a research paper looking at the critical and public response to Cecil B. DeMille's "The Cheat", which I am writing for Dan Streible's Film History/Film Historiography course. I am gearing my research toward the early years of Hollywood, and specifically looking at the career of Cecil B. DeMille as it relates to the development of the film community in Hollywood. By focusing this first paper on "The Cheat", I hope to establish not just its high reputation in its own country, but the influence it had on film makers a

Tunneling the English Channel (1907)
One of Georges Melies' most prophetic of his pseudo-science fiction efforts, "Tunneling the English Channel" is a delightful combination of political satire and fantasy.Made in 1907, the film is presented in a lavishly hand-colored print (although the print used for the recent "Melies: First Wizard of Cinema" collection begins with a rather rough, black and white copy and switches to a pristine, hand-colored source about halfway through. This was presumably pieced together from the best surviving elements). The films begins with a sort of split-screen set up, featuring the King of England and the President of France getting ready for bed. As they dream, visions of the building o

Rough Sea at Dover (1895)
There is something strangely haunting about this short (very short) actualitie piece shot by Birt Acres and R.W. Paul in what must have been one of their earliest efforts. It provides an interesting contrast to Edison's films in terms of the use of a location. Whereas Edison preferred to showcase a performer, making location a secondary issue of concern strictly for practical purposes, Acres and Paul showcase the sea as a subject in itself.Shot on an apparently stormy, dour day at a pier at Dover, the filmmakers capture the raw energy made possible by the scope of the subject (the sea would return as a favorite subject for many future films, and its continual movement still poss

Caceido with Pole (1894)
On the excellent Kino/MoMA Thomas Edison set, there is a fascinating little film that I've been tempted to write briefly about for some time now. Titled "Caceido with Pole", and dating from 1894, the film is remarkable for being the first Edison film shot outdoors of the Black Maria. There is something strangely enticing about the film for this reason alone. Without further research, I can't be sure where the film was photographed, precisely, though it was almost certainly either right outside of the Edison lab, or in a very nearby location to Orange, New Jersey.In many ways, the subject matter and presentation are no different from the countless other early Edison s