Cinderella (film)

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Cendrillon
(1899) film title frame

Title: "Cendrillon" (Cinderella)

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Fantasy

Director/Producer: Georges Méliès

Based on: "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault (1697)

Starring:
--- Mlle Barral (Cinderella)
--- Bleuette Bernon (Fairy Godmother)
--- Carmelli (Prince)
--- Jehanne d'Alcy (Prince's mother, Queen)
--- Depeyrou (a party guest)
--- Georges Méliès (the genie of the midnight clock)

Georges Méliès
Paris, December 8, 1861
- January 21, 1938,
director of the 1899 film
Cendrillon (Cinderella)

Production company: Star-Film

Distributors: Star-Film, Pathé Frères (France) - American Mutoscope & Biograph, Edison Manufacturing Company, S. Lubin (USA)

Released: October 1899 (France) - December 25, 1899 (USA)

Running time: 6 min.

Color: Black and White, partially hand-colored

Language: Silent

Summary plot: The film illustrates the essence of the classic fairy tale Cinderella in the version of Charles Perrault (1697). A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out?

Interesting facts: Cendrillon (Cinderella) by Georges Méliès is the oldest known film adaptation of the homonym Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale. The film was extraordinary then for having multiple scenes, using six distinct sets and five changes of scene within the film; it is also the first movie to utilize a dissolve transition between scenes. Cendrillon was shot in the "glass house" studio designed by Méliès himself and located in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. In 1912 Méliès made another adaptation of the story, "Cendrillon ou la Pantoufle merveilleuse" (Cinderella or the Glass Slipper).

Property: Star-Film

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - first scene

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - the coach

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - dancing clocks

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - Barral as Cinderella and director Méliès as genie

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - final scene

Cendrillon (Cinderella), 1899 - complete film ready to play (5 min. 40 sec.)

Tarzan (film)

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Tarzan of the Apes
(1918) film title frame

Title: "Tarzan of the Apes"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Action/Adventure

Director: Scott Sidney

Writers:
--- Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel)
--- Fred Miller
--- Lois Weber

Based on: "Tarzan of the Apes"
by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

Scott Sidney
Warren C., Apr. 27, 1874
- London, July 20, 1928,
director of the 1918 film
Tarzan of the Apes

Starring:
--- Elmo Lincoln (Tarzan)
--- Enid Markey (Jane Porter)
--- True Boardman (John Clayton)
--- Kathleen Kirkham (Alice Clayton)
--- George B. French (Binns, a sailor)
--- Gordon Griffith (Tarzan, younger)
--- Colin Kenny (William Cecil Clayton)
--- Thomas Jefferson (Professor Porter)
--- Bessie Toner (Bar Maid)
--- Jack Wilson (Captain of the Fuwalda)
--- Louis Morrison (Innkeeper)
--- Eugene Pallette
--- Fred L. Wilson

Cinematography: Enrique Juan Vallejo

Producer: William Parsons

Production company: National Film Corporation of America

Distributor: First National Exhibitors' Circuit

Released: January 27, 1918 - Broadway, New York, USA

Running time: 73 min.

Color: Black and White

Language: Silent

Summary plot: John and Alice Clayton take ship for Africa. Mutineers maroon them. After his parents die the newborn Tarzan is taken by a great Ape, Kala. Later the boy finds his father's knife and uses it to become King of Apes. Binns, the sailor who saved the Claytons and who has been held by Arab slavers for ten years, finds the young Tarzan and then heads for England to notify his kin. A scientist arrives to check out Binns' story. Tarzan, now a man, kills the native who killed Kala; when their chief is killed the black villagers appease Tarzan with gifts and prayers. The scientist's daughter Jane is carried off by a native, rescued by Tarzan, aggressively loved by him, and at last accepts him with open arms.

Interesting facts: Tarzan of the Apes, the first Tarzan movie ever made released in 1918 in the US, is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' homonymic novel. The movie adapts only the first part of the novel, the remainder becoming the basis for the sequel, The Romance of Tarzan. Tarzan of the Apes was filmed in 1917 in Morgan City, Louisiana, utilizing Louisiana swamps as a stand-in for the African jungle. National Film Corporation hired eight acrobats to play apes for which costumes made from goat skins and elaborate masks were constructed.

Slogan: «The most stupendous, amazing, startling, film production in the world's history»

Property: National Film Corporation of America

Tarzan of the Apes newspaper advertisement (The evening world, New York, January 26, 1918). «JUNGLE SCENES IN NOVEL FILM FOR BROADWAY - Native and Animals of Brazil in "Tarzan of the Apes". - To what lenght motion picture producers will go to get proper atmospheric detail and local color will be demonstrated at the Broadway Theatre in the new film sensation "Tarzan of the Apes", which begins an indefinite run at that house on Sunday night and is to be shown twice daily thereafter. The National Film Corporation, which made the production, took a company composed of twenty principals, directors, camera men and a crew of stage builders to the Amazon River district of Brazil and thence to the interior of the Brazilian jungles, where two months were spent making the scenes of the story. Six lions, four tigers and a number of panthers, wild boars and elephants were transported to the Brazilian wilds for use in the picture. Four lions were killed before the camera and a number of other wild animals slain. Over 2,000 natives were engaged, asembled at Manaos and transported inland and rehearsed for three weeks before the scenes typifying cannibal action were staged. As the natives spoke nothing but a Portoguese patois, a number of interpreters were kept constantly on the scene and busily engaged conveying the director's wishes. Bushmen were necessary to clear the locations each day of poisonous reptiles and during the ten weeks the company stayed in Brazil over 200 snakes were killed, fifteen serious accidents happened to the players in the company and three fores occured. A cannibal village covering three aeres of ground was built and burned to the ground during the action of the play, and rebuilt from another angle and again burned when Tarzan, at the head of a group of elephants, ranged through the village to avenge the death of his ape mother. Three hundred thatched roof huts were built each time. Fifty-two aerial acrobats were engaged and taken to the jungles and ape suits built to their measure by tailors. Nine cars, six Pullman and three baggage, were required to transport the company from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where a number of scenes were staged. Sixteen sheds, similar to those at our army cantonments, were erected in Brazil for the housing of the members of the company, and a small church was built and services in various religions held on each Sunday. Two hundred thousand feet of film were exposed at a cost of $300,000. The presentation of this picture at the Broadway Theatre will be the first showing anywhere outside of the company's studios».

Tarzan of the Apes newspaper advertisement (The evening world, New York, Jan. 26, 1918)

Tarzan of the Apes newspaper advertisement (New-York tribune, New York, Jan. 27, 1918)

Tarzan of the Apes newspaper advertisement (The New York Times, Jan. 27, 1918)

Tarzan of the Apes theatrical poster (1918)

Tarzan of the Apes original posters (1918)

Tarzan of the Apes advertisement (Moving Picture World, January-March 1918)

Tarzan of the Apes advertising cards (1918)

Tarzan of the Apes, Enid Markey as Jane Porter and Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan (1918)

Tarzan of the Apes, complete film (2004 Platinum Disc version of the 1918 original, 60 min.)

Sherlock Holmes (film)

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Title: "Sherlock Holmes Baffled"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Detective film

Cinematography: Arthur Marvin

Starring: Sherlock Holmes and the intruder
(History did not record the name of the actors) 

Based on: Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes (the plot is unrelated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Sherlock Holmes stories; it is likely that the character's name was used purely for its familiarity with the public)

Arthur Marvin
May, 1859 - Jan. 18, 1911,
the American
cinematographer
who created
Sherlock Holmes Baffled

Producer / Distributor: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

Produced: April 26, 1900 - USA

Official release: February 24, 1903

Running time: 30 seconds

Color: Black and White

Language: Silent

Summary plot: A thief who can appear and disappear at will steals a sack of items from Sherlock Holmes. At each point, Holmes's attempts to thwart the intruder end in failure.

Interesting facts: Guinness World Records has listed Sherlock Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character", with more than 70 actors playing the part in over 200 films. His first screen appearance was in the 1900 Mutoscope film, Sherlock Holmes Baffled. The Mutoscope worked on the same principle as a flip book, with individual image frames printed onto flexible cards attached to a circular core which revolved with the turn of a user-operated hand crank. The cards were lit by electric light bulbs inside the machine. Cheaper and simpler than the Kinetoscope, the system, marketed by the American Mutoscope Company (later the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company), quickly dominated the coin-in-the-slot peep-show business. Sherlock Holmes Baffled ran to 86.56 metres in length, giving the film a running time of 30 seconds. Assumed to be lost for many years, the film was rediscovered in 1968 as a paper print in the Library of Congress.

Property: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

Sherlock Holmes Baffled, characters. Holmes is wearing a dressing gown and smoking a cigar, the thief is dressed in black. Unknown actors.

Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1903), complete film ready to play

Sherlock Holmes Baffled was realized specifically for the Mutoscope (early 1900s)

Batman (film)

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Batman: The Movie
(1966) film title frame

Title: "Batman" (also "Batman: The Movie")

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Superhero films

Director: Leslie H. Martinson

Writer: Lorenzo Semple, Jr.

Based on: Comics by Bob Kane and Bill Finger

William West Anderson
(Adam West)
Walla Walla, Sep. 19, 1928,
the actor who played Batman
in the 1960s television series
and in the 1966 theatrical film

Starring:
--- Adam West (Batman / Bruce Wayne)
--- Burt Ward (Robin / Dick Grayson)
--- Lee Meriwether (The Catwoman / Kitka)
--- Cesar Romero (The Joker)
--- Burgess Meredith (The Penguin)
--- Frank Gorshin (The Riddler)
--- Alan Napier (Alfred Pennyworth)
--- Neil Hamilton (James Gordon)
--- Stafford Repp (Chief Miles O'Hara)
--- Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet Cooper)
--- Reginald Denny (Commodore Schmidlapp)
--- Milton Frome (Vice Admiral Fangschleister)
--- Gil Perkins (Bluebeard)
--- Dick Crockett (Morgan)
--- George Sawaya (Quetch)
--- Van Williams (Lyndon B. Johnson)

Producers:
--- 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
--- William Dozier Productions
--- Greenlawn Productions

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Released: July 30, 1966 - Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, USA

Running time: 105 min.

Color: By Deluxe

Language: English

Music by: Nelson Riddle - Neal Hefti (Batman theme)

Summary plot: Batman and Robin faces four archvillains - the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler and the Catwoman - who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.

Interesting facts: Batman is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series (the film hit theaters over a month after the last episode of the first season), and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character Batman. The film includes most members of the original TV cast: the actors for Batman, Robin, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara, Aunt Harriet, the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler all reprised their roles. ABC, the network which previously aired the Batman television series, first broadcast the movie version on the July 4, 1971 edition of The ABC Sunday Night Movie; the film was quickly rebroadcast on ABC September 4 of that year. The film was released on VHS in 1985 by Playhouse Video, in 1989 by CBS/Fox Video, and in 1994 by Fox Video. The film was re-released July 1, 2008 on DVD and on Blu-ray. The subsequent films in the series are (year, directors, Batman actor):
--- Batman (1989, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton)
--- Batman Returns (1992, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton)
--- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993, E. Radomsky - B. Timm, Kevin Conroy)
--- Batman Forever (1995, Joel Schumacher, Val Kilmer)
--- Batman & Robin (1997, Joel Schumacher, George Clooney)
--- Batman Begins (2005, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale)
--- The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale)
--- The Dark Knight: Rises (2012, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale)

Slogan: «FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE MOTION PICTURE SCREEN IN COLOR! Adam West As Batman And Burt Ward As Robin Together With All Their Fantastic Derring-Do And Their Dastardly Villains, Too!»

Property: 20th Century Fox - Greenlawn Productions

Batman: The Movie, American posters

Batman: The Movie, Italian posters

Batman: The Movie, French posters

Batman: The Movie, the superheroes. Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin.

Batman: The Movie, the villains. From left: Lee Meriwether as Miss Kitka / Catwoman; Frank Gorshin as The Riddler; Burgess Meredith as The Penguin; Cesar Romero as The Joker.

Batman: The Movie, official trailer (1966)

Alice in Wonderland (film)

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Alice in Wonderland
(1903) film title frame

Title: "Alice in Wonderland"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Fantasy

Directors: Cecil M. Hepworth, Percy Stow

Writers: Lewis Carroll (novel), Cecil M. Hepworth

Based on: Lewis Carroll's children's book
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865)

Cecil Milton Hepworth
Lambeth, Mar. 19, 1874 -
Greenford, Feb. 9, 1953,
writer of the 1903 film
Alice in Wonderland,
director with Percy Stow,
also plays the Frog.

Starring:
--- May Clark (Alice)
--- Cecil M. Hepworth (Frog)
--- Mrs. Cecil Hepworth (White Rabbit / Queen)
--- Norman Whitten (Fish / Mad Hatter)
--- Geoffrey Faithfull (Card)
--- Stanley Faithfull (Card)
--- Blair (Dog)

Producer: Hepworth Film Manufacturing Company

Executive producers: Herman Casler, Elias Koopman, Harry Marvin

Cinematography: Cecil M. Hepworth, Liwayway Memije-Cruz

Distributors: Hepworth Film Manufacturing Company (UK) - American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, Edison Manufacturing Company (USA)

Released: May 1903 (Surrey, England, UK) - October 17, 1903 (USA)

Running time: 8 min. 19 sec. (originally 12 min.)

Color: B/W

Language: Silent

Summary plot: Alice follows the White Rabbit down a mysterious hole and finds herself in a strange new world. Text from the original silent film titles:
1) "Alice dreams that she sees the White Rabbit and follows him down the Rabbit-hole, into the Hall of Many Doors".
2) "Alice, now very small, has gained access to the Garden where she meets a Dog and tries to make him play with her".
3) "Alice enters the White Rabbit's tiny House, but, having suddenly resumed her normal size, she is unable to get out until she remembers the magic fan".
4) "The Duchess's Cheshire Cat appears to Alice and directs her to the Mad Hatter. - The Mad Tea-Party".
5) "THE ROYAL PROCESSION - The Queen invites Alice to join. - Alice unintentionally offends the Queen who calls the Executioner to behead her. But Alice, growing bolder, boxes his ears and in the confusion which results, she awakes".

Interesting facts: The 1903 British silent film "Alice in Wonderland" was the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". It also was the longest film yet produced in Britain, running about 12 minutes. In 1903, there were two directors working at the Hepworth studio in Walton-on-Thames, Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. Hepworth was responsible for the studio's non-fiction films, while Stow made all the fiction films. This was such a large production that the two men worked together. The film was made on the small wooden stage in the garden of the villa housing Hepworth's company, with exteriors shot in the lavish gardens of Mount Felix, a local estate which until recently had been owned by the son of Thomas Cook the travel agent. Alice was played by Mabel Clark, Hepworth played the frog footman and his wife played the White Rabbit and the Queen. Only one copy of the original film is known to exist and parts are now lost. The British Film Institute partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010.

Property: Hepworth

Alice in Wonderland (1903), screenshots from the movie

Alice in Wonderland (1903), complete film ready to play (8 min. 19 sec.)

The Pink Panther (film)

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The Pink Panther
(1963) film title frame

Title: "The Pink Panther"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Comedy

Director: Blake Edwards

Screenwriters: Maurice Richlin, Blake Edwards

Peter Sellers
(Richard Henry Sellers)
Portsmouth, Sep. 8, 1925
- London, Jul. 24, 1980
as Inspector
Jacques Clouseau

Starring:
--- David Niven (Sir Charles Lytton)
--- Peter Sellers (Inspector Jacques Clouseau)
--- Robert Wagner (George Lytton)
--- Capucine (Simone Clouseau)
--- Claudia Cardinale (Princess Dala)
--- Brenda De Banzie (Angela Dunning)
--- Colin Gordon (Tucker)
--- John Le Mesurier (Defense attorney)
--- James Lanphier (Saloud)
--- Guy Thomajan (Artoff)
--- Michael Trubshawe (Felix Townes)
--- Riccardo Billi (Aristotle Sarajos)
--- Meri Welles (Monica Fawn)
--- Martin Miller (Pierre Luigi)
--- Fran Jeffries (Ski Lodge singer)

Producer: Mirisch Company

Distributor: United Artists

Released: December 19, 1963 (West Germany) - March 20, 1964 (USA)

Running time: 113 min.

Color: Technicolor - Technirama

Original language: English

Music by: Henry Mancini

Summary plot: A jewel thief plans to steal the Pink Panther, the world’s largest diamond, from Princess Dala of Lugash. Bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau intends to catch the mysterious thief known only as The Phantom.

Interesting facts: Although the film's title actually refers to a diamond, the credits are presented in a cartoon sequence featuring a pink panther who interacts with the lettering in various ways, spinning letters around, unscrambling words, inserting extra credits for himself, and so on. The cartoon panther has subsequently appeared in the same manner in several sequels to this film and eventually his own TV series The Pink Panther Show (1969). The film was shot in Cortina d'Ampezzo and Rome (Italy), Paris (France) and Los Angeles (USA). The subsequent films in the series are (year, director, Clouseau actor):
--- A Shot in the Dark (1964, Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers)
--- Inspector Clouseau (1968, Bud Yorkin, Alan Arkin)
--- The Return of the Pink Panther (1975, Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers)
--- The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976, Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers)
--- Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978, Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers)
--- Trail of the Pink Panther (1982, Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers/Stand-ins)
--- Curse of the Pink Panther (1983, Blake Edwards, Roger Moore)
--- Son of the Pink Panther (1993, Blake Edwards, Roberto Benigni)
--- The Pink Panther (2006, Shawn Levy, Steve Martin)
--- The Pink Panther 2 (2009, Harald Zwart, Steve Martin)
--- ...

Quote (Clouseau): «Simone! Where is my Surété-Scotland-Yard-type mackintosh?»

Property: Mirisch Company - United Artists

The Pink Panther (1963), theatrical poster by Jack Rickard

The Pink Panther (1963), quad poster by Jack Rickard

Princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale) and Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven)

Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and his wife Simone (Capucine)

The Pink Panther original trailer

Frankenstein (film)

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Frankenstein
(1910) film title frame

Title: "Frankenstein"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Horror

Director and screenwriter: James Searle Dawley

Based on: "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

Starring:
--- Augustus Phillips (Dr. Frankenstein)
--- Charles Ogle (the Monster)
--- Mary Fuller (Elizabeth)

James Searle Dawley
May 13, 1877
- March 30, 1949,
director
and screenwriter
of Frankenstein

Producer - Distributor: Edison Manufacturing Company

Released: March 18, 1910 - New York City, USA

Running time: 13 min.

Color: B/W, color

Language: Silent

Music by: Life Toward Twilight

Summary plot: Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster. A fight ensues but the monster, seeing himself in a mirror, is horrified and runs away. He later returns, entering the new bride's room, and finds her alone.

Interesting facts: For many years, this film was believed to be a lost film. In 1963, a plot description and stills were discovered published in the issue of an old Edison film catalog, "The Edison Kinetogram" (below). In the early 1950s a print of this film was purchased by a Wisconsin film collector, who did not realize its rarity until many years later. Its existence was first revealed in the mid-1970s.

Property: Edison Manufacturing Company

Frankenstein on "The Edison Kinetogram" film catalog (cover, March 15, 1910)

Frankenstein on "The Edison Kinetogram" film catalog (clipping, March 15, 1910)

Frankenstein announcement (The Film Index, New York City, March 5, 1910). «"Frankenstein," Mrs. Shelley's famous story, will be released by the Edison Company very soon. The possibilities of this weird tale from a dramatic and photographic standpoint are tremendous, and in their development the Edison people have set themselves to a task that will exhaust every resource at their command».

Frankenstein announcement, plot and review (The Film Index, New York City, March 12, 1910). «"FRANKENSTEIN" Ambitious Effort of the Edison Producers Should Attract Widespread Attention - Other Releases. "Frankenstein," which will be released March 18, is a liberal adaption of Mrs. Shelley's famous story under that title. As told in the film story shows Frankenstein, a young student of the sciences, leaving his father and sweetheart to persue his studies at college. In the course of his researches he discovers the awful mystery of life and death and immediately determines to realize his one consuming ambition - to create the most perfect human being that the world has ever seen. Alone in his room he conducts the experiment and after an almost breathless suspense is rewarded by seeing an object forming and rising from the blazing caldron in which ha has poured his ingredients, - a vague, shapeless thing at first but gradually assumes a human form and exhibits sign of animation. His joy at the success of his experiment is quickly turned to horror and dismay, however, when he finally beholds the fruition of his labor; for the evil thoughts that swayed his mind before and during the experiment have so influenced his handwork that, instead of a human being endowed with beauty of face and form, he has created a hideous monster of a colossal, unshapely proportions and most frightful mien. The agony he endures in the days that succeed in trying to keep his awful secret from the world, and especially from his sweetheart as their wedding day draws near, is most realistically depicted upon the film. The monster, unwilling to be separated from his creator, haunts his footsteps with canine-like devotion, jealous of and resenting his attentions to any one else. The object of the creature's especial hatred is Frankenstein's sweetheart, whose room he invades on her wedding night, driving her shrieking into her husbands' arms. Broken down by his unsuccessful efforts to be constantly with his creator and appalled as well at his own reflection, the monster stands in an attitude of entreaty before the mirror and here the psychological theory of the whole story is demonstrated, viz: that when Frankenstein's love for his bride shall have attained its full strenght and freedom from impurity the creature cannot exist. The monster gradually fades from view, leaving only hid reflection in the glass, which strange to say remains as the reflection of Frankenstein himself as he enters the room and approaches the mirror. Gradually, however, under the influence of his now better love and nature the image of the monster disappears and Frankenstein, freed from the awful burden he has been carrying, finds happiness in his bride's embrace. The actually repulsive situations in the original version have been carefully eliminated in its visualized form, so that there is no possibility of its shocking any portion of an audience; but the dramatic strenght of this gruesome story clings to its dramatization, and it is safe to say that no film has ever been released that can surpass it in power to fascinate an audience. The scene in the laboratory in which the monster seemed to gradually assume human semblance is probably the most remarkable ever committed to a film. "Frankenstein" is a production that will hold an audience spellbound and is certain to excite a very great deal of attention and comment».

Frankenstein (1910), complete film ready to play (13 min.)