The story of Jesus Christ, from the proclamation of His Nativity to His Ascension into heaven. Impressive staging and beautiful hand-coloring distinguish the film from its Passion-play counterparts; Its scale and dynamic crowds prelude the Italian epics to come.
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.
A magician performs tricks with a marvelous wreath.
A green-skinned demon places a woman and two courtiers into a flaming cauldron.
It's late in the evening, and the ballet master's bed has been prepared for him. But he cannot take his mind off of his work, and instead of going to sleep he paces the floor and tries out dance steps. Finally, he goes to bed and falls asleep, but ballet dominates even his dreams. He sees two dancers who seem to come right into his room as they perform, and that's just the beginning.
With godly entrapments, Zeus appears on the horizon, engages Hermes as an audience, and tries to throw some thunderbolts. They fizzle. Hephaestus tries to make some repairs but succeeds only in heating the bolts and burning Zeus's hands. Zeus conjures nine muses, but do their incantations help? He dismisses them as well as a visiting Pan, and his fits of pique become counter-productive. Can he get his powers back?
A simple scene of two rather flamboyantly-dressed Edwardian children attempting to feed a spoonful of medicine to a sick kitten. The film is important for being one of the earliest films to cut to a close-up, then back again to the same medium shot as before.
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
Two guards bring a sorcerer into the hall of a palace of the time of the Middle Ages. The king who follows them orders the sorcerer to be chained and to be condemned to death for his practice of witchcraft. He begs the king to permit him just one hour of liberty, assuring the king that he will create, thanks to his power, a charming woman, worthy of becoming the king's consort. The king, after a moment of hesitation, agrees.
A re-telling of the classic tale of Faust in all of two minutes by French filmmaker Alice Guy.
This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.
In a corner of the garden we see an ornamental fountain. An old professor comes along, looking for a nice spot where he can teach his pupils. Finding the fountain to his liking he goes after his scholars. A mysterious person who has noticed the old man, by means of a balloon, a handkerchief and a coat, constructs a peculiar figure, doing a lot of tricks at the same time.
A juggler enters upon the scene, picks up a skull, throws it into the air, catches it in his hands, where it is transformed into a handkerchief. The handkerchief, after being twirled about a wand, is changed to a napkin, and afterward to a tablecloth. Out of the table cloth comes a servant.
In certain sections of New York City large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors congregate so closely along the sidewalks that they interfere with traffic. Policemen keep them moving. The picture shows how the frightened peddlers hurry away when a bluecoat appears. Some of the carts are piled high with fruits of all kinds, and it is interesting and amusing to see the expressions of combined fear and anxiety on the faces of the men as they hurry away; the fear of being arrested if they stand, and of losing some of their wares if the carts strike an obstruction in the street. Very fine photographically. (Edison film company catalog)
A woman riding a train must contend with the unwelcome advances of a male passenger.
A magician transforms a woman into a portrait of herself, then restores her to life.
