The Haunted Castle (1986) (3 min)
Since I have found that you can get much better versions on YouTube of the early silent films I am watching than on the hairy little Roku channels, I have completely switched over to there for now. However! This means that I am now finding more of the pre-1909 movies that I wasn’t looking for very hard, therefor we are going back to 1896 for another film by Georges Méliès, The Haunted Castle.
This…
Alice in Wonderland (1903) (9 min)
This is the oldest filmed version of Alice in Wonderland, with one surviving print in terrible shape, restored by the BFI.
There are a great deal of camera tricks and dissolves, Alice growing small, and then big again, etc. My fave is that the Cheshire Cat is played by an enlarged real cat who looks very grumpy about the whole situation.
I am a huge Alice fan, so one of the things I love…
Safe in Hell (1931) - UCLA Film Archive, Billy Wilder Theatre (double-bill with Party Husband)
I love it when they have these pre-code films at the UCLA Film Archive, because they are so random and crazy, and mostly you haven’t heard of them, and often they are great because they are kind of terrible, but in a hugely enjoyable way. Also, films from the 30s are my favourites, not the least of which because they are mostly 60-75 minutes, and…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Rip Van Winkle (1903) (4 min)
It is listed as being from 1896, but literally the first thing in the film is a title card saying that it was shot December 29, 1902, so I don’t know who looked at that and said, confidently, “Aha! 1896!”
This is the very first filming of the story, set in eight tiny vignettes, that were apparently originally eight separate 30 second films. Aha! According to Wikipedia, they were actually shot in August of…
