Alice Guy

A man must marry by noon or lose his inheritance. It's 11:50 a.m. and he can't find his fiancée. (imdb)

A comedy about what the world would be like if gender roles were reversed.

A pregnant woman satisfies her cravings by stealing people's food and drinks.

Comedy short about a man who seems incapable of shedding his clothes to get his bath.

Here is a short film called "La Glu" [1907] involving the mischievous adventures of a boy with a bucket of glue that resembles today's cyanoacrylate equivalent--Super Glue. (archive.org)

Family drama centering on Winifred's (Marion Swayne) illness from "consumption". (archive.org)

La Fée aux Choux is sixty seconds long, possibly making it the earliest known film with a running time of at least one minute. (Wikipedia)

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Two crooks try to break into a house as a couple cops come after them. (imdb)

An abused woman finds love in the arms of a famous novelist. (imdb)

A married couple decide to "live separately together." (imdb)

Serpentine dance.

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Serpentine dance.

Five young men in bathing suits accompanied by a dog evolve from rock to rock in the cascade of a stream. (Wikipedia)

Features a group of men sitting around a table playing a game when a fight breaks out. (imdb)

AVENUE DE L'OPERA is a nicely done gimmick film that shows up a busy street but the film is played backwards. (imdb)

The automatic Sausage Machine was for many decades a vaudeville routine that was committed to film several times, most notably by Edison in 1895: take a live dog, place him in the hopper, turn the crank, and out comes a chain of hot dogs. But Alice Guy at Gaumont went Edison one better with this lively reenactment -- probably from a variant that was playing the French music halls -- in which you got not only sausages, but straw hats.... a reference, no doubt, to what people have long said was us (imdb)

AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S is a decent comedy for its time as we get the annoying man constantly messes up the plans of the photographer. (imdb)

We see a doctor use a large knife and a saw to remove the arm and leg of a patient. They then put him into a wheelchair only to have him jump up and dance around. (imdb)

A vaudeville act with a man, his dog, and a balloon.

The film consists of some sort of poodle or poodle-mix stealing a long, long coil of sausages from the butcher shop (though it looks more like a rope). Suddenly, everyone in town is chasing the dog... (imdb)

Butterfly dance.

Algie Allmore has one year to prove he's a man in order to wed Harry Lyons' daughter. (imdb)

A spoof of Sherlock Holmes who was quite popular at the time. Directed by Alice Guy Blache in the Solex Studios. (youtube)

The Professor will not allow his daughter to marry a non-musician, but Billy, her would-be suitor, cannot play a single note. When he is about to give up, Billy's roommate suggests bluffing his way into the Professor's favor with the aid of a suitably musical disguise and a well-hidden phonograph player.

WONDERFUL ABSINTHE has a drunk getting bumped from behind when, sure enough, a fight breaks out. (imdb)

A woman's maid is helping her at the post office by licking stamps, and a passing rake decides to steal a kiss with some unexpected results. (imdb)

This 1906 short comedy from Alice Guy is fairly typical for this period of work by the world's first director: a pretty maid is out walking, and encounters a series of military men, starting with a private, who lose her to higher ranks, ending with the colonel. (imdb)

A beggar plays a prank after being kicked off a bench.

Staged military ambush.

In this Gaumont film, a boy pushes a fisherman into a stream. The fisherman, then, proceeds to hit the boy in retaliation. The boy has a couple friends with him, though, and the film concludes in a bit of a wrestling match, with the boys dunking the fisherman back into the water. (imdb)

DISAPPEARING ACT is a poor man's Melies wannabe as a magician makes a woman turn into a devil then turns it back into a man. (imdb)

MIDWIFE TO THE UPPER CLASS is a "spoof" of rich people as a couple (with the man being played by a woman) visits a cabbage patch to buy a kid. (imdb)

A short silent comedy from Alice Guy involving a landlady, a man, and a group of children.

Serpentine dance.

Scene of the last supper.

The famous serpentine dance was originated by modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller and soon widely imitated in both American and European vaudeville. This performance shows Mme. Ondine performing the dance in a lion's cage! Music by Eric le Guen.

Serpentine dance.

Two pranksters switch out a real horse for a rocker while the sleeping coachman remains helpless.

Little Tich (or more likely his director) cleverly makes use of the screen frame at the end. Tich makes his exit stage right -- at the left edge of the image -- then turns and leans forward on his boots, bringing his grinning face back into the frame for an encore! (imdb)

The story of Jesus Christ in 25 scenes. (imdb)

A recent immigrant learns several hard lessons about how husbands in America are expected to behave. (imdb)

THE CABBAGE-PATCH FAIRY will put a smile on the face of anyone who has heard of this tale or in later times seen the actual Cabbage Patch dolls. A fairy, in her cabbage patch, picks a few babies out from the weeds and sits then on the steps in front of her. (imdb)

A hand-colored short by Alice Guy at a dance. (imdb)

A slow winter dance.

PIERRETTE'S ESCAPADES is a nice attempt at hand tinting, which doesn't tell much of a story but we see two women getting ready for something and eventually dancing around. The real reason to watch this short is for the hand tinting, which is pretty ugly by today's standards but I always love watching films that used this early technique. (imdb)

A love triangle erupts into fighting. (imdb)

A woman shows off her trained dogs. (imdb)

Alice Guy has managed to tell, in a thoroughly confusing manner, the entire story of Faust in about two minutes!!! I laugh at this because the original story consisted of 25,000 lines of non-rhyming German verse. How anyone expected to adequately address this complex story so quickly is beyond me. To try, Guy often stops the camera to make things seem to magically appear. However, unless you are very familiar with the original story, the whole thing is a confusing nightmare. (imdb)

A bunch of bricklayers cause trouble for the local cops. (imdb)

It's a sound film of a crowing rooster from 1906, which sounds very odd. What's even odder is that it's a Gaumont short, and not a Pathe short, since the crowing rooster was the Pathe symbol and mascot.... a cute joke and they must have giggled about it at the front office. (imdb)

This one of two amazing shorts that I stumbled upon and they absolutely blew me away, as I didn't know any such films existed. In 1905, long before the first talking full-length film, THE JAZZ SINGER, was released, Alice Guy experimented with talking (yes, I said talking) films! The film consists of a French cabaret singer, Dranem, singing a little song as a motionless camera recorded him. (imdb)

Félix Mayol sings a song on stage in this film. However, if you'd like a real kick in the pants, try to find "Questions Indescretes" where Mayol sings as well...and it's in color!!! (imdb)

The film consists of a French cabaret singer, Dranem, singing a little song as a motionless camera recorded him. This short and "Five O'Clock Tea" were both made with Dranem and feature the same set, so it's easy to mix them up with the other. (imdb)

In this film, one of several Mr. Mayol did for Ms. Guy, he sings about white flowers. (imdb)

Polin performs a song. (imdb)

A magician transforms a tiny dinner table into a full meal for a homeless man. (imdb)

A living statue causes trouble for unsuspecting bystanders.

Alice Guy short of the cake walk.

Felix Mayol performs a song.

Saharet performs the bolero for Alice Guy.

Alice Guy shoots a travelogue documentary all around Spain.

A bullfighter dances with a woman.

A woman performs the tango.

One of the first "The Making of..." documentaries with Alice Guy directing her experimental sound films of 1905. (imdb)

The kids of a game-keeper get into a chase with rifles.

A magical hair-growing potion turns men into apes.

A runaway barrel wreaks havoc all over the city.

Alice Guy films the sea.

The parish priest spends his Christmas spreading good will.

A bunch of people run an obstacle course all around town.

A poor boy is mistreated by his mother when his father isn't looking.

A drunk winds up inside the mattress a lady is mending.

During the French Revolution, a boy runs across trouble at the barricade.

A four-year-old saves the day.

A zealous janitor mops the floor so hard nobody can stand up.

Alice Guy short about a dirigible.

A piano entices everyone who comes near.

A soldier with a fur hat hides in a closet.

Alice Guy's version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. Looks like only the 1st of 3 reels exists today.

Peggy Wilson (Blanche Cornwall) has recently become an orphan and a ward of the Waston family. She's also inherited the late Robert Wilson's vast fortune, which puts her very much in Mr. Waston's favor. He would like his son, Frank (Mace Greenleaf), to marry Peggy, but Peggy "is not his style" and "her money is no inducement".

"Wild Bill" Gray is a renegade and a wife-beater. He is about to start on some expedition of crime and his wife implores him to stay at home. She receives a beating for her trouble. Jim, a cowboy, rides past the shack, hears Mrs. Gray's screams and interferes, and takes Mrs. Gray over to his friend, the postmaster, so that she may have a good home. "Wild Bill" plans vengeance. Paxton, the postmaster, starts for the station with money and gold, and is accompanied a short way by Jim. (imdb)

Footit & Chocolat perform a comic sketch based on William Tell.

Tribe from India do various acrobatic exercises. Some dance on a rope stretched at the end of two bamboos stuck in the ground, carry on their head in perfect balance a pile of earthenware vessels. Others climb like monkeys with a surprising agility, perform the dance of GUYARATIS birds, scratch their heads, peck the ground.

A man and a dog play with a ball.

Rich man rewards a tramp for defending him from muggers. Nobody can cash the big bill the tramp is carrying; comical misadventures.

A father who is determined his daughter should marry a count leading the boyfriend to dress up as the count to thwart his plans.

Mr. Newlywed will not allow his wife to have a dog. Her uncle, taking pity on her, goes out to buy one. Meanwhile, Wilkens and his wife, butler and maid to the Newlyweds are informed they must retrieve their "secret" child from friends who were watching her. (imdb)

A woman convinces her fiancé to dress like a hobo so she can tell her disapproving father he saved her life, but a real hobo steps in instead.

A miner mutiny causes the new mining superintendent to leave to get cavalry help with his girlfriend, Florence. Jake, a miner who also loves Florence, stays behind to fight.

Sam the white-washer pines for the affluent Lindy, but she has dumped him in favor of another. Sam finds a large sum of money, and goes to New York to enjoy a shopping spree, buying new clothes, jewelry and a car with a driver. Back home, Lindy flips for Sam and his newfound wealth, and dumps the rival. Sam throws an engagement party where he indulges in a friendly game of cards with his former rival and another man, who unbeknownst to Sam, is a card shark. (imdb)

Old Joel Smith is charged with murder. He tells his story, in flashback, of striking with ironworkers, then the confrontation when he resolves to go back to work to feed his starving family.

Major Neal disowns his daughter, because he considers her marriage a misalliance. Years pass. One morning (Christmas), a hamper is found beneath the Major's covered driveway. The hamper contains a baby girl. (imdb)

Nouveau Cirque performs the cake-walk.

A man stops to have his shoes polished by a young boy. A woman, passing by, has her garter slip to the ground. She replaces it, raising her skirt to do so; the boy is distracted.

A man dancing at a party finds one of his socks has fallen down. Retreating where no one can see him, he removes the offending item. the consequences are not long in coming in this very short -- two minutes -- comedy from Alice Guy.

A parson arrives in the midst of a bunch of wild cowboys. Expecting a male parson, the boys set out in full force to receive him, but on the road when they suddenly run into the one-horse shay of a female parson, they keel over in surprise. Right after her arrival the boys begin to lay plans to get in right, while the parson loses no time in starting a campaign for the defeat of Satan. She begins by posting a sign near the town horse trough to the effect that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

Kitty, the six-year-old daughter of Detective Harper, finds a homeless dog. Her mother does not look with favor upon the animal, and is about to drive him away when Harper decides that they will keep the dog. A gang of counterfeiters victimize some storekeepers with bad bills. The storekeepers complain to Captain Matthews of the Police Department, and he in turn notifies Detective Harper by telephone.

A Mexican officer is desirous of obtaining the intentions of the American troops. He converses with Decastro, who suggests that they send Juanita, a Spanish girl, into the American line. Juanita succeeds in getting acquainted with Lieutenant Harvey, of the American troops. Harvey teaches her telegraphy. Juanita, so far, has not been successful in securing any information that would be of use to the Mexican government, so she plans to admit Decastro into the telegraph office.

A young man of high social position sacrifices his home and family for a girl of the stage. Cast off by his family, the young man finds that he is not qualified to earn his living. In the meanwhile his wife grows ill, a child is born, and several years after, the man finds himself in narrow straits. He prepares to go out and burglarize a place. His child enters when he leaves his revolver on the table. The child plays with it as with a toy and then innocently removes the bullets.

The police are on the lookout for Jim Spike, alias Jim Nail, a dangerous highway robber, who has been working with more or less success without being apprehended. The chief of the detective bureau puts two new detectives on the case and enjoins them to be very careful in their investigations, and not to come back without landing the prisoner. The three detectives soon come upon Edgar Carroll, in whom they immediately see a striking resemblance to Spike, the crook.

To celebrate the sale of his painting "The Empress", Louis de Baudry invites his model, Nedra for a holiday in the country. After de Baudry has forced his way into Nedra's room, the hotel owner, Peters, photographs the two of them smiling. A year later, Nedra is married to rich Eric Bruce. Peters has blackmail on his mind.