Cinematic Era: 1907 Vintage

A German Tonbild, or 'Sound Picture'.

A tailor falls asleep and dreams that the suit he needs to make is magically completed.

Devilish looking man dances with a dress in his arms. The dress stands up by itself and a woman magician appears in it. She conjures six women and then makes them disappear. She magically changes into men's clothing and lines up six boxes which begin to smoke and produce six women, whose clothing transforms from formal gowns to ballet dresses. The magician makes them disappear. She then lines up six glasses on a table, and, as she pours wine into them, a woman appears in each glass. She makes the wine go back into the container and everything on the table goes up in smoke. She transforms her clothing into a dress, then disappears, leaving the dress standing on its own. The devilish man reappears, turns the dress into torches, then disappears into smoke with the torches. (Library of Congress)

At dawn, two cowboys set out to scout ahead; as soon as they are on the trail of a herd of wild horses, they attempt to surround them and drive them back. A rapid stamping alerts their companions, who prepare the lassos; the ropes whistle, wind around the necks of the panicked beasts, which take a few more steps then, strangled and panting, are brought back captive. In the evening, they camp. Large fires are lit around which men and beasts settle down to sleep, not without a good guard being kept in the surrounding area. Meanwhile, the Apaches creep under cover of night to the American camp and succeed in seizing the captured beasts. Following this abduction, a frantic pursuit begins across the vast solitude of the Far West.

This is a mesmerising little short that employs a peculiar bird’s eye view of a mischievous devil who dances around, performing strange tricks and making sexy ladies appear out of nowhere. The colourful visual effects are very impressive for the time.

A dog runs away with a length of sausage. Chaos erupts as the butcher chasing the dog collides with bystanders who angrily follow. According to the GP archives, no director is confirmed for this film, although either Louis Feuillade or Alice Guy are possible candidates.

A woman enters her sitting room and begins to undress, as she feels a Pulicomorpha crawling under her clothes. Pathé Frères production Nº 1641.

A top-hatted man gets dressed in the morning, and starts to yawn, causing his housekeeper to yawn as well. He sets off down the street where he proceeds to make others yawn as well, including a shop keeper, passers-by, and a small group of soldiers.

Two clowns perform acrobatic routines with each other, but suddenly start fighting. One of them finds and hides inside a large canvas sack that turns out to have magic properties. (stumfilm.dk)

Punished for mistreating the family pets, a young boy uses his chemistry set to wreak revenge on his parents.

A noble Roman, bored with his life, sees a slave dance and they fall in love. Before they can consummate their passion, his wife has the slave killed and he drinks the same poison as she.

A young woman walks down the street and is suddenly followed closely by an assortment of middle-aged and old men. She gets on a bus and they all crowd the vehicle. She stops for a drink and they all attempt to pay.

Three suitors try to impress a girl by chasing her all over the place. Finally she makes her choice.

A gendarme is so tired that he takes off his boots and lies down to rest. A thief who sees the boots runs away but they give off such a bad smell that wherever he passes it causes people to faint from the stench.

Boireau's father keeps trying to apprentice him to a different trade. Each time, the youngster annoys the customers and destroys the goods and property.

The story of two sisters and a tragic love affair.

A young female boarding house tenant becomes an unwanted object of male attention.

A small dog thwarts burglars in this British short film.

Fun film from French master Georges Melies has a couple burglar's breaking into a man's home and having to hide when that man returns. Instead of a trick film or something that he's known for, the director really changes gears here and instead delivers what's basically an action movie.

A soldier, and his sergeant are in love with the same woman. The soldier in a moment of anger attacks the sergeant who for this gesture makes him imprison. The war council's judgment is immediate: deportation to military prison. In the military prison we see shocked and threatened men who are punished with torture and other brutal rites if they do not follow orders. The soldier, after a plot that took place inside the prison, is thrown into a silo that if it had not been for the help of a friend he would have died. The two men try to escape but both die.

The 5th Sokol Festival Gathering took place in 1907 in Prague, Letná (the Letná Plain). The film shots are documenting the following gymnastic exercise pieces: exercises performed by women with clubs, exercises performed by men belonging to the Prague Sokol Group, exercises performed by men with shields and canes, exercises performed by American women (Sokol members) with flags, exercises performed by women (trade union members), gymnastic exercises performed by men, exercise on gears performed by men (horizontal bars, rings, parallel bars, side horse), gymnastic exercises performed by French Sokol members. The Sokol Cavalry was parading in front of the terraces. The event was closed by a ceremony parade on Staroměstské náměstí (the Old Town Square). We can see the Slovácko band and the Sokol Cavalry participating in the parade, as well as the American Sokol members.

This film by Georges Mendel uses a primitive synchronization system for the projector and phonograph. Original sound lost but recently restored.

“Music Forward!” is the order given by a lady in Colonial costume, and in march a group of five musicians, working industriously at their instruments. The directress stands them in a row, and taking the head off each, throws it onto a huge music staff and each becomes a note of the scale. The whole bodies appear again, after which the manipulator seems to wrap them up in a large sheet of music, which is then shown to contain nothing. The paper is rolled up again, and a cane is held, perpendicularly, in a horizontal position to the sheet.

The film is incomplete and there are no preserved programmes which explain the story. The fragment consists of the following scenes: Scene 1: An older and a younger man are talking in a living room. Scene 2: The young man is courting a woman and is rejected on account of another suitor. Scene 3: The older man receives a telegram about a shipwreck. The news almost drives him to take his own life. Scene 4: The two men are now standing outside a shop and seem happy again. A woman is sitting with a child on her lap, perhaps belonging to the young man and the woman he previously pursued. The film was directed by Viggo Larsen, who, as far as we know, directed all films for Denmark’s first film company, Nordisk Films Kompagni, in the period between 1906 and 1909. Viggo Larsen also plays the young man in the film. -Stumfilm.dk

A young woman and her maid go for a stroll in the park. The maid goes away, and the girl, siting alone in her folding bank, starts feeling the effects of the heat. After a look around to make sure that she is alone, she strips naked, and has a refreshing bath. While she is at it, a middle-aged couple approaches and decides to rob the girl's clothes. The woman strips her own, poor peasant's clothes, and dons on quickly the girl's dress; they leave in a hurry. The girl is distressed when she finds that she has only her undershirt to cover herself. A policeman wearing a white casket appears before the girl can dress, and she runs away, hunted by the policeman. Nearby, a man in a white suit and Panama hat is having a picnic with his family, greets a passing friend, and offers him some refreshment. Before they can toast, they're trample on by the fugitive girl, and the policeman close by. They all stand up and join the chase. A bearded man in a dark suit is out for a stroll in the park, ...

A hobo on roller skates creates havoc in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood

An early short featuring Florence Lawrence.

Captivated by a vision of beckoning women, a man dives into the ocean, and soon finds himself walking on the ocean floor. After encountering numerous sea creatures, he comes to a giant oyster. When the oyster is opened, a strange adventure begins for the diver.

The most famous gondola celebration in Venice, the "Regata Storica," takes place every year on the first Sunday in September. This splendid film, colored with stencils, is about the 1907 event.

The English opening title may call her “a nervous kitchen-maid,” but Victoire isn’t exactly nervous in the usual sense. Instead, she’s on her last nerve, fed up with being poorly treated by her employers and ready to express that frustration by breaking every dish in sight after being criticized one too many times for her coffee-making skills.

By designs of St. Hubert, patron saint of the hunt, a humble woodcutter is brought to a sumptuous palace and offered riches, which he despises.

Newsreel covering the military operation on the Swedish west coast in September 1907, where both the army and the marine participated.

Max causes havoc when he joins other skaters on a frozen lake.

People magically appear and disappear from an oversized musical cigar dispenser.

A prisoner attempts a daring escape using trick transformations, dissolving and reassembling into new forms as he eludes capture. This early Vitagraph short showcases imaginative special effects in a comic take on prison break fantasy.

The engineer troops build a bridge for the infantry to run across.

Behind the elderly husband's back, the lovers kiss and go off together. But is he unaware of their actions. No! So she swears that her husband is mad and as I'mm locked away in a padded cell. That, however, will not end the matter.

A woman replaces her injured beau on a spy mission.

Ellen Aggerholm performing.

Polichinelle the servant (called Harlequin in the English language version) rescues his girlfriend from a gang of decadent aristocrats, who have transformed her into a mechanical doll.

Pathé's factory is the scene of the action. The interior of the huge laboratory comes into view, the employer and foreman, apparently in wry intimate relations, passing through on an inspection tour. Several different news of the works follow, after which the employees are shown departing, their day's labor over. One of these going out walks up to the foreman standing nearby, and there is a heated argument because the foreman has accused the laborer of committing a number of thefts which have puzzled everybody. The naughty foreman repeats the accusation, and the laborer, indignant and furious, knocks him down with a blow. The foreman gathers himself together and promises to even accounts, while the worker's comrades restrain him from inflicting further punishment. Complainant and accused now appear before the head of the concern to settle the dispute, and the employer sides with his faithful foreman; as a result, the laborer is discharged. Now the foreman is seen as he really is. ...

A parade...

Another boring evening at the Baron's home; he sits and reads a magazine, while his wife sits across the reading table, reading a newspaper. The housemaid enters, bringing a message from Franz, who convenes the Baron to an urgent meeting at the Club. Excusing himself, and thoroughly kissing his wife good-evening, the Baron leaves - to meet some lady of the night in the club's private room, with champagne and a sofa for two. At home, the Baroness gets bored, until she has an idea, soon put to practice. She sends a man a letter, signed Divine Lola, giving him rendez-vous at a discreet pension. The modern Eve is not taking her husband's infidelities sitting down. She lays in her undershirt on a bed inviting her lover in, in a long embrace.

A photographer has a studio in which he asks women to pose in the nude or in daring clothes. Then he receives his all-male clientele, to show them (and the camera, via inserts) the results of his art. But a previous model who refused to take off her clothes, accusing him of harassment, returns with the police in tow.

An orphan boy escapes from a reformatory.

Release of a ship.

A series of static shots of the buildings of the California Mission system, as they existed in 1907. Because many of the Mission buildings were in poor states of repair in 1907, director Norman Dawn uses glass shots, a technique where paintings are applied to a sheet of glass placed between the camera and the objects being photographed, in order to restore roofs and walls that had been destroyed.

Shows a drunkard in a road man's cell, raving. He sleeps and dreams that he has a huge flask before him; this he attempts to grasp, but awakens, finds that it was a vision and then falls back and expires. The last picture is a tableau showing Sisters of Mercy round the departed inebriate.

Shot by Kichizo Chiba and featuring the Nobuchika Nakano kubuki troupe is one of the earliest Japanese film of the supernatural, and the first to specifically reference to the world of yurei ("ghosts").

A village fire brigade puts out a fire.

The story tells of a matador, the leading figure in the Spanish bull ring, whose lady love proves fickle.

The short story tells of a young man who, after being rejected by the girl of his dreams, hangs himself from the tallest tree in the local park. He is soon discovered by the park keeper and, amid much commotion, various people are called upon to get him down as quickly as possible. The young man turns out to be still alive and is resuscitated with a bicycle pump.

A Breton enters the cave where the witch performs her magic and asks for advise. At the witch's command, he kisses her and becomes transformed into a richly dressed prince. In turn, the witch kisses him back and turns into a charming princess.

The first scene preceded by the title: greeting visitors, is taken across a dirt road that runs in front of the Jeffries' home. Approaching the house is an automobile with four passengers. As the car stops in front of the house, Jim Jeffries and his wife come out to greet the visitors. All then enter the house, the camera was at such a distance that subjects are not easily identifiable.

One of the earliest Mexican fiction films

The scene is set on a castle in the mid-18th century. The princess loves a young man from the court, but the king wants her married to an older, wealthier suitor. Hoping for a miracle to happen, the princess refuses his marriage proposal. (Stumfilm.dk)

Criminals go on strike in protest at their treatment by the authorities, to the distress of the police and magistrates who find they have nothing to do.

A young woman's involuntary head twitch is misinterpreted, as she and her husband are pursued around Paris by an ever-growing group of adoring men.