This films is most certainly not a remake of the Edwin S. Porter film, overlong (both with regard to its title and to the film itself), which did not appear until the autumn. McCutcheon's film was copyrighted in June (but the August date of the advert probably reflects the date on which the film was first expected to be shown. AM&B sued Edison for plagiarism but unsuccessfully and there had by this time been several other versions of what was one of the most important and influential films of the year. Other "remakes" that survive include Lubin's Meet Me at the Fountain, which was quite straightforwardly adevrtised as a new version of Personal, but featuring the female impersonator Gilbert Saroni, and Segundo de Chomón's L'hereu de Ca'n Pruna also made in the autumn of 1904 for the Spanish company Macaya y Marro. Quite the best film version of the story is Dix femmes pour un mari, directed by Georges Hatot, which was not made until 1905 (for Pathé).
But, as with much material used fro early films, it is quite simply a joke - and a fairly obvious one - that was already current, probably before any of the films were made. In this sense, although McCutcheon undoubtedly deserves credit as the man responsible for the most important and influential treatment of the theme, the courts were right to dismiss AM&B's complaint, much as one may regret the tendency of the US legal system to kowtow before the hugely inflated reputation of Thomas Alvar Edison.
Another Spanish film, now seemingly lost, by Fructuoso Gelabert, Los guapos de la vaqueria del parque seems to have been much the same story in ervers - that is to say a millionairess who had inherited money who advertises for a husband and ends up being pursued by all the boys in town. Gelabert later claimed that the other 1904 Spanish film was copied from his film rather than from the US film Personal. Unfortunately his film does not seem to have been made until 1905!
Before talking about "remakes" one needs to bear in mind the huge common heritage on which cinema could call for simple one-minute or two minute films. - popular jokes and anecdotes, cartoons, dance and vaudeville acts, lantern slides, early gramophone recordings etc etc etc. Edison and Lubin did copy AM&B in this case (and both made a regular habit of doing so at this period) but McCutcheon himself was simply drawing from the common well. The most enjoyable version to watch today is the Hatot one, not because it is the first but quite simply because it is the best.
But, as with much material used fro early films, it is quite simply a joke - and a fairly obvious one - that was already current, probably before any of the films were made. In this sense, although McCutcheon undoubtedly deserves credit as the man responsible for the most important and influential treatment of the theme, the courts were right to dismiss AM&B's complaint, much as one may regret the tendency of the US legal system to kowtow before the hugely inflated reputation of Thomas Alvar Edison.
Another Spanish film, now seemingly lost, by Fructuoso Gelabert, Los guapos de la vaqueria del parque seems to have been much the same story in ervers - that is to say a millionairess who had inherited money who advertises for a husband and ends up being pursued by all the boys in town. Gelabert later claimed that the other 1904 Spanish film was copied from his film rather than from the US film Personal. Unfortunately his film does not seem to have been made until 1905!
Before talking about "remakes" one needs to bear in mind the huge common heritage on which cinema could call for simple one-minute or two minute films. - popular jokes and anecdotes, cartoons, dance and vaudeville acts, lantern slides, early gramophone recordings etc etc etc. Edison and Lubin did copy AM&B in this case (and both made a regular habit of doing so at this period) but McCutcheon himself was simply drawing from the common well. The most enjoyable version to watch today is the Hatot one, not because it is the first but quite simply because it is the best.