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1890s Short Movies

Public list by WPS with 97 movies or TV shows/series

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96 movies found (page 1/4):

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.

The Hallucinated Alchemist(1897)

2min | Horror, Fantasy
3.0/5 (with 10 votes)

The Flicker Alley DVD "Georges Méliès: Encore New Discoveries (1896-1911)" misidentified a partial hand-colored print of the 1906 film "Alchimiste Parafaragaramus ou La cornue infernale" (The Mysterious Retort) as this film, "L'hallucination de l'alchimiste" (An Hallucinated Alchemist) from 1897, which continues to be considered a lost film.

Directed by Georges Méliès

The Sprinkler Sprinkled(1895)

1min | Comedy
3.5/5 (with 107 votes)

A gardener is watering his flowers, when a mischievous boy sneaks up behind his back, and puts a foot on the water hose. The gardener is surprised and looks into the nozzle to find out why the water has stopped coming. The boy then lifts his foot from the hose, whereby the water squirts up in the gardener's face. The gardener chases the boy, grips his ear and slaps him in his buttocks. The boy then runs away and the gardener continues his watering. Three separate versions of this film exist, this is the original, filmed by Louis Lumière.

Annabelle Serpentine Dance(1895)

2.9/5 (with 43 votes)

In a long, diaphanous skirt, held out by her hands with arms extended, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore performs. Her dance emphasizes the movement of the flowing cloth. She moves to her right and left across an unadorned stage. Many of the prints were distributed in hand-tinted color.

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots(1895)

1min | History, Horror
3.1/5 (with 44 votes)

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

Directed by Alfred Clark - With Robert Thomae

The Astronomer's Dream(1898)

3min | Fantasy
3.4/5 (with 79 votes)

An astronomer has a terrifying dream.

Blacksmith Scene(1893)

2.8/5 (with 40 votes)

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

Directed by William Kennedy Dickson - With Charles Kayser, John Ott

The Vanishing Lady(1896)

1min | Mystery
3.1/5 (with 49 votes)

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.

The Kiss(1896)

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.

Poor Pierrot(1892)

3.0/5 (with 40 votes)

One night, Arlequin comes to see his lover Colombine. But then Pierrot knocks at the door and Colombine and Arlequin hide. Pierrot starts singing but Arlequin scares him and the poor man goes away.

Demolition of a Wall(1896)

3.2/5 (with 49 votes)

Auguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.

Directed by Louis Lumière - With Auguste Lumière

The Four Troublesome Heads(1898)

1min | Comedy, Fantasy
3.6/5 (with 67 votes)

One of the greatest of black art pictures. The conjurer appears before the audience, with his head in its proper place. He then removes his head, and throwing it in the air, it appears on the table opposite another head, and both detached heads sing in unison. The conjurer then removes it a third time. You then see all three of his heads, which are exact duplicates, upon the table at one time, while the conjurer again stands before the audience with his head perfectly intact, singing in unison with the three heads upon the table. He closes the picture by bowing himself from the stage.

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Between Calais and Dover(1897)

1min | Comedy
2.6/5 (with 16 votes)

A rocky sea voyage as reenacted by Georges Méliès.

Directed by Georges Méliès

A Nightmare(1896)

1min | Horror
3.0/5 (with 43 votes)

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

Dickson Experimental Sound Film(1894)

1min | Music
3.2/5 (with 40 votes)

William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.

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.

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy(1896)

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

The Bewitched Inn(1897)

2min | Fantasy
3.2/5 (with 27 votes)

A weary traveler stops at an inn along the way to get a good night's sleep, but his rest is interrupted by odd happenings when he gets to his room--beds vanishing and re-appearing, candles exploding, pants flying through the air and his shoes walking away by themselves.

Bedtime for the Bride(1896)

7min | Drama
2.4/5 (with 8 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 Haunted Castle(1897)

3min | Horror
2.9/5 (with 26 votes)

A man has an encounter with several spooky apparitions in a castle that is evidently owned by the Devil.

Newark Athlete(1891)

2.2/5 (with 28 votes)

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

After the Ball(1897)

1min
2.6/5 (with 35 votes)

A woman arrives home after the ball. Her servant helps her undress and bathe.

Directed by Georges Méliès - With Jehanne d'Alcy

Annie Oakley(1894)

2.9/5 (with 21 votes)

Annie Oakley was probably the most famous marksman/woman in the world when this short clip was produced in Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Barely five feet tall, Annie was always associated with the wild west, although she was born in 1860 as Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee (or Moses)in Darke County, Ohio. Nevertheless, she was a staple in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and similar wild west companies. Because of her diminutive stature, she was billed as "Little Sure Shot." The man assisting her is this appearance is probably her husband, Frank E. Butler. Annie had outshot Butler (a famous dead-eye marksman himself) in a shooting contest in the 1880's. Instead of nursing his bruised ego because he had been throughly outgunned by a woman, Butler fell in love, married Little Sure Shot, and became her manager.

Dickson Greeting(1891)

2.4/5 (with 26 votes)

William K.L. Dickson brings his hat from his one hand to the other and moves his head slightly, as a small nod toward the audience. This was the first film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company to be shown to public audiences and the press.

The Mechanical Butcher(1895)

2.8/5 (with 18 votes)

A butcher puts a full-grown live pig into his large box-like machine. Moments later, he draws out a full range of pork products, many already packaged for sale.

Directed by Auguste and Louis Lumière

Men Boxing(1891)

2.0/5 (with 18 votes)

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

Snowball Fight(1897)

3.3/5 (with 30 votes)

Wintertime in Lyon. About a dozen people, men and women, are having a snowball fight in the middle of a tree-lined street. The cyclist coming along the road becomes the target of opportunity. He falls off his bicycle. He's not hurt, but he rides back the way he came, as the fight continues.

Directed by Louis Lumière

The X-Ray Fiend(1897)

1min | Comedy, Horror
2.7/5 (with 23 votes)

A romantic couple are transformed into skeletons via X-Rays. The film combines two very recent innovations: Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895, and Georges Méliès' accidental realisation of the special-effects potential of the jump-cut in 1896.

Directed by George Albert Smith - With Tom Green

Playing Cards(1896)

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.

Partie d'écarté(1896)

2.9/5 (with 27 votes)

Three men are sitting around a table, two of them playing a game of Écarté. When the game is over, a domestic serves drinks.

Directed by Louis Lumière - With Antoine Féraud, Antoine Lumière, Félicien Trewey, Alphonse Winckler
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