1896 Short Movies

30 movies found (page 1/1):

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(1896)

3.6/5 (with 237 votes)

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Directed by Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière

A Nightmare(1896)

1min | Horror

3.0/5 (with 52 votes)

A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Georges Méliès

The Haunted Castle(1896)

3min | Fantasy, Horror

3.2/5 (with 74 votes)

Le Manoir du diable or The House of the Devil, released in the United States as The Haunted Castle and in Britain as The Devil's Castle, is an 1896 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. The film tells the story of an encounter with the Devil and various attendant phantoms. It is intended to evoke amusement and wonder from its audiences, rather than fear. However, because of its themes and characters, it has been considered to technically be the first horror film, as well as potentially the first vampire film. The film opens with a large bat flying into a medieval castle, circling a room, and then suddenly changing into the Devil. Producing a cauldron, Mephistopheles conjures up a young girl and various supernatural creatures in an effort to scare two cavaliers, eventually succeeding in causing one to flee. Ultimately the remaining cavalier is confronted face-to-face by the Devil before reaching for and brandishing a large crucifix, which causes the Devil to vanish.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Jehanne d'Alcy, Georges Méliès

The Kiss(1896)

1min | Drama, Romance / Love

2.6/5 (with 54 votes)

They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.

Directed by William Heise - With May Irwin, John C. Rice

The Vanishing Lady(1896)

1min | Mystery

3.1/5 (with 49 votes)

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Jehanne d'Alcy, Georges Méliès

Playing Cards(1896)

1min | Documentary, Comedy

2.4/5 (with 25 votes)

Three friends are playing cards in a beer garden. One of them orders drinks. The waitress comes back with a bottle of wine and three glasses on a tray. The man serves his friends. They clink glasses and drink. Then the man asks for a newspaper. He reads a funny story in it and the three friends burst out laughing while the waitress merely smiles.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Georges Méliès, Gaston Méliès

A Terrible Night(1896)

1min | Comedy, Horror

2.6/5 (with 36 votes)

A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed, and a battle ensues in hilarious comic fashion.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Georges Méliès

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy(1896)

1min | Fantasy, Kids & Family

2.6/5 (with 39 votes)

A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. This film is lost or never existed. Copies of it online are actually the 1900 remake.

Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché

Lion, London Zoological Gardens(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.2/5 (with 8 votes)

A male lion, right next to bars that are about 6 or 8 inches apart, keenly watches a uniformed zoo attendant toss small morsels of food into the cage. The lion alternates between finding the food on the cage floor and reaching through the bars to swipe at the man, who stays alarmingly close to the beast. In the background are the large rocks and brick wall at the back of the lion's habitat.

Directed by Alexandre Promio

Post No Bills(1896)

1min | Documentary, Comedy

2.7/5 (with 21 votes)

A soldier stands guard at a sentry box and leaves it unprotected for a moment, a moment that two men take advantage of to put up posters where it is prohibited.

Directed by Georges Méliès

Bedtime for the Bride(1896)

7min | Drama

2.4/5 (with 9 votes)

A newlywed couple in front of their wedding-bed after their wedding. The woman undresses in front of her husband. A French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made.

Directed by Albert Kirchner - With Louise Willy

The Soldier's Courtship(1896)

1min | Drama

2.0/5 (with 2 votes)

Britain's first drama (i.e. non documentary) film.

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Two AM; or, The Husband's Return(1896)

1min | Drama

2.2/5 (with 3 votes)

Husband comes home late and wakes the wife. Based on a popular stage play.

Directed by Robert W. Paul - With Paul Clerget

Carmaux: Drawing Out the Coke(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.4/5 (with 10 votes)

Carmaux is in south-central France, near the Tarn River. As a brick of coke, about four feet high and three feet wide, is gradually pushed out of a smelter into a yard, one worker sprays it with water from a hose while two workers with long metal rakes wait to spread it out. Other workers buzz in and out of the foreground of the stationary camera. Atop the first level of the brick smelter, workers push full carts of coal along a track.

Directed by Louis Lumière

A Sea Cave Near Lisbon(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.6/5 (with 4 votes)

The water beats relentlessly against the Hell's Mouth (Boca do Inferno), one of the main natural attractions of Lisbon's west coast, filmed from above almost in a vertical plunge onto the deep, rocky ground.

Directed by Henry Short

The Melbourne Cup(1896)

3min | Documentary

2.5/5 (with 2 votes)

This film documents the 1896 Melbourne Cup horse race including footage of the crowd watching the race.

Directed by Henry Walter Barnett

Blackfriars Bridge(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.6/5 (with 7 votes)

R.W. Paul's early footage showing the new Blackfriars Bridge. It had been opened by Queen Victoria in 1869 for both road and rail, and showcases the distinctive Venetian Gothic ironwork.

Directed by Robert W. Paul

Conjuring(1896)

1min

2.7/5 (with 5 votes)

The film reproduces a magic act Méliès performed at his Paris theater-of-illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. Conjuring is notable as Méliès's second film, and as his first to move beyond the actuality film genre pioneered by the Lumière brothers and experiment with using the camera to capture a theatrical magic act. (Later in 1896, with his discovery of the substitution splice technique, Méliès was able to begin augmenting his theatrical illusions with new special effects unique to film.) Conjuring can thus be seen as Méliès's first foray into the world of fiction film. The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and numbered 2 in its catalogues.

Directed by Georges Méliès

McKinley at Home, Canton, Ohio(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.1/5 (with 8 votes)

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by William Kennedy Dickson - With William McKinley, George Bruce Cortelyou, Ida Saxton McKinley

The Boxing Kangaroo(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.3/5 (with 5 votes)

The Boxing Kangaroo is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for exhibition on Robert W. Paul’s peep show Kinetoscopes, featuring a young boy boxing with a kangaroo. The film was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme, originally shown in a portable booth at Hull Fair by Midlands photographer George Williams, donated to the National Fairground Archive was identified as being from this film.

Directed by Birt Acres

The Twins' Tea Party(1896)

1min

2.6/5 (with 4 votes)

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by Robert W. Paul

Comic Costume Race(1896)

1min | Comedy, Documentary

2.3/5 (with 2 votes)

Three athletes make their way to wicker baskets that contain a mishmash of wacky costumes. They need to dress up as quickly as they can, and make their way back on the running track.

Directed by Robert W. Paul

Ruraux au galop(1896)

1min | Documentary

2.0/5 (with 1 vote)

A clip by Gabriel Veyre showing horses galloping at a Mexican festival.

Directed by Gabriel Veyre

Boxing Match; or, Glove Contest(1896)

1min | Documentary

1.9/5 (with 2 votes)

Staged boxing match between Sergeant-Instructor Barrett and Sergeant Pope, with a round, interval, and knockout.

Directed by Birt Acres

Landing at Low Tide(1896)

1min

1.5/5 (with 2 votes)

Brighton. Landing of party from small boat with comic incidents.

Directed by Birt Acres

Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour(1896)

1min | Documentary

1.7/5 (with 2 votes)

Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed by Birt Acres, featuring a fleet of fishing smacks leaving the harbour at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK. The "attractive Victorian film," was according to Christian Hayes of BFI Screenonline, "one of the twenty-one subjects presented by Birt Acres to the royal family on 21st July 1896, the day before the marriage of Princess Maud to Prince Charles of Denmark, at one of the very first royal film performances.".

Directed by Birt Acres

Dancing Darkies(1896)

1min

2.8/5 (with 1 vote)

"A company of little darkies showing off their paces to the music of the banjo.".

Directed by William Kennedy Dickson

L'Arroseur (Watering the Flowers)(2025)

1min

2.0/5 (with 2 votes)

This film was made in imitation of the more famous Louis Lumière film L'Arroseur Arrosé.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Georges Méliès

Dr. Macintyre's X-Ray Cabinet(1909)

1min | Animation, Documentary

Single shot of a man behind an x-ray screen on which his x-ray is clearly visible and moving. Another man sits on a chair to the right of the screen. The x-ray image that appears on screen is same as seen in last sequence Dr. Macintyre's X-Ray Film.

Directed by John Macintyre

Gestoorde hengelaar(1896)

Comedy

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by M.H. Laddé, J.W. Merkelbach - With Lion Solser, Piet Hesse

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1896 Short Movies

RSS feedEntries in this List

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(1896)

A Nightmare(1896)

The Haunted Castle(1896)

The Kiss(1896)

The Vanishing Lady(1896)

Playing Cards(1896)

A Terrible Night(1896)

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy(1896)

Lion, London Zoological Gardens(1896)

Post No Bills(1896)

Bedtime for the Bride(1896)

The Soldier's Courtship(1896)

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Two AM; or, The Husband's Return(1896)

Carmaux: Drawing Out the Coke(1896)

A Sea Cave Near Lisbon(1896)

The Melbourne Cup(1896)

Blackfriars Bridge(1896)

Conjuring(1896)

McKinley at Home, Canton, Ohio(1896)

The Boxing Kangaroo(1896)

The Twins' Tea Party(1896)

Comic Costume Race(1896)

Ruraux au galop(1896)

Boxing Match; or, Glove Contest(1896)

Landing at Low Tide(1896)

Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour(1896)

Dancing Darkies(1896)

L'Arroseur (Watering the Flowers)(2025)

Dr. Macintyre's X-Ray Cabinet(1909)

Gestoorde hengelaar(1896)

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