Shorts 1903
All short movies I have seen from 1903 ranked from best to worst.
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- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsGilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' AndersonA.C. AbadieGeorge BarnesA group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsMarguerite ThévenardBleuette BernonIn this spectacular free adaptation of the popular theatre play "La Biche au Bois", the valiant Prince Bel-Azor pursues a baleful old witch to her impregnable castle, to save the beautiful young Princess Azurine.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsThe leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsTwo demons throw helpless captives into a boiling cauldron, and then try to summon forth their spirits.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsDeep into a vast cavern of the pitch-black inferno, a couple of professional dancers demonstrate the cakewalk that is currently so much in vogue, and now, everyone in the once-gloomy underworld is doing the crazy dance. Who is the best?
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsLaura BayleySmith casts his wife as a sluttish housewife who is mutilated by lighting her oven with paraffin.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsBrief "trick film" in which Zeus and two other gods romp with dancing girls on Olympian clouds.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsAgainst a moonlit Egyptian backdrop duly encompassing the Sphinx, a narrator explains how a prince hires a mystic to bring back his beloved late wife.
- Georgetown is a silver-mining town at 8,500 feet near the crest of the Rockies. Hooked somehow to the rear of a four-car passenger train is a camera that pans the scenery and, when the train goes around curves, looks ahead to see the engine and passenger cars: the passengers wave hundreds of white handkerchiefs out of the train's left-side windows for the benefit of the camera. The town comes into view; the tracks are above the town, so the camera looks down on dozens of modest rooftops as it pans the area.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA Brahmin comes upon a giant caterpillar, which turns into a cross between a butterfly and a girl: the Brahmin finally turns into a caterpillar.
- DirectorWilliam HaggarStarsSid GriffithsWill Haggar Jr.Walter HaggarThree hunters surprise two poachers in the act. The hunters take umbrage and give chase over fences and through fields. The hunters fire away, but the poachers have guns as well, and a fight ensues with casualties for the hunters. Two cops appear and so do dogs as the chase continues. Will the poachers escape, or will they, like the game they were after, be trapped?
- DirectorGeorge S. FlemingEdwin S. PorterStarsEdwin S. PorterVivian VaughanArthur WhiteA fireman rushes into a carriage to rescue a woman from a house fire. He breaks the windowpanes and carries the woman to safety; after dangerous and uncertain moments he also saves the woman's son.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsZizi PapillonIn this brief "trick film" two clowns assemble an enormous magic lantern which first projects moving images, then emits dancing girls.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterShows a bedroom and a man asleep in bed. A burglar cautiously raises the window, climbs in, and proceeds to go through the man's clothes. The man awakes, pulls a lever, which closes him up in a folding bed, the bottom of which is iron-clad and fitted with guns and portholes. The burglar is dumbfounded and cannot move. Subbubs turns his battery loose, blowing the burglar to pieces. He then raises an American flag on a staff on top of the bed as a signal of victory. The bed opens up again and Subbubs goes to sleep.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsEdward BouldenA woman being fitted for shoes exposes her ankle to the shoe clerk, who is intrigued. He kisses her, but her chaperone hits him with her umbrella.
- DirectorRobert W. PaulStarsAlfred CollinsA stationary camera looks on as two dapper gents play a game of chess. One drinks and smokes, and when he looks away, his opponent moves two pieces. A fight ensues, first with the squirting of a seltzer bottle, then with fisticuffs. The combatants wrestle each other to the floor and continue the fight out of the camera's view, hidden by the table. The waiter arrives to haul both of them out.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsA traveler is shown to a room in an inn. After a brief dispute with the hostess and a porter, he is left to himself. But strange things begin to happen in his room, and before long he has created a disturbance that has everyone running to his room to find out what is going on.
- DirectorJ.B. SmithThis short film shows a panoramic view of Manhattan Island, as it appeared in 1903. The island is viewed from the North River (Hudson River), and the view moves down the west side of the island towards The Battery. Both the waterfront and the skyline behind it are shown.
- DirectorFrank S. MottershawA thief jumps a fence and removes the shutter from a house. He enters, but a lad who's witnessed the crime runs off to hail the coppers.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsFalling into the same perplexing predicament that doomed the hapless travellers in Going to Bed with Difficulties (1900), and The Bewitched Inn (1897), an unsuspecting man is harassed by an annoying poltergeist. Can he outsmart it?
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsDenied a handout, a witch exacts vengeance by cursing the village well.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithA girl gives a spoonful of medicine to a kitten.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsJoseph JeffersonA compilation of eight earlier films, also from 1896, that chronicle the adventure of Rip van Winkle. Rip encounters dwarf-like mountain-dwellers, gets drunk with them and awakes after twenty years, having significantly aged.
- DirectorA.E. WeedA woman in fancy dress enters a dressing room and begins to disrobe. She removes a coat, a top, and her skirt. As she starts to remove her chemise in front of the camera, she thinks the better of it and steps behind an opaque screen. Soon, she tosses her slip over the screen toward the camera. Then, she reaches with her naked arm across to a chair to grab her next costume. She emerges dressed in a very short and spangled skirt and top, ready for her next performance.
- DirectorWalter R. BoothRobert W. PaulA man and a woman talk beside a street near a corner where a cop stands. Just as a horse-drawn cart rounds the corner, the man backs off the sidewalk saying good-by to his companion. The horse and cart flatten him and continue on, out of the camera's stationary range. The cop runs after the cab, the woman dashes to the body. The cop brings back the driver; is the victim dead?
- DirectorCecil M. HepworthPercy StowStarsMay ClarkCecil M. HepworthBlairThis 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.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsCarl GoliathTopsyThe execution of Topsy, a female elephant, in a publicity stunt advertising the opening of Luna Park on Coney Island. Topsy was originally owned by Forepaugh Circus where she killed a drunken spectator who burned the tip of her trunk with a cigar. She was sold to Sea Lion Park in 1902 which was then sold to new owners who turned it into Luna Park. After they decided they could no longer handle her, the owners of Luna Park announced they would hang Topsy, leading to an outcry by the ASPCA. The owners then decided they would electrocute the elephant, with a backup plan of feeding her cyanide-laced carrots and strangling her with a cable.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterA fine panoramic view of this busy market on a Friday morning. Immense throngs of people are passing along the stands and making their purchases of fish. A great character-study. - from the Edison Catalog
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsGilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' AndersonBertha RegustusA woman riding a train must contend with the unwelcome advances of a male passenger.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterBased on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Eliza, a slave who has a young child, pleads with Tom, another slave, to escape with her. Tom does not leave, but Eliza flees with her child. After getting some help to escape the slave traders who are looking for her, she then must try to cross the icy Ohio River if she wants to be free. Meanwhile, Tom is sold from one master to another, and his fortunes vary widely.