Billy Edwards and a challenger named Warwick fight an exhibition boxing match.Billy Edwards and a challenger named Warwick fight an exhibition boxing match.Billy Edwards and a challenger named Warwick fight an exhibition boxing match.
- Director
- Stars
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally filmed in five rounds, with each round exhibited separately in adjoining kinetoscopes. Only one round survives.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005)
Featured review
Not Much In Itself, But It Reveals What Was Popular In Its Day
This short boxing feature is not really all that interesting in itself, except perhaps for its brief look at a once well-known athlete, but it is a representative of one of the most popular genres in the earliest years of the movies. As such, its otherwise unexceptional quality helps us to see just how popular the genre itself once must have been.
In the previous year, the Edison Company had made a highly successful film series of a boxing match that involved the popular James J. Corbett, one portion of which survives. Corbett was both a champion boxer and a showman, and it is easy to explain why a movie of him boxing would be a success. But this was one of a number of movies that followed, using the same format but with boxers of far lesser quality and fame.
Billy Edwards was once a top lightweight, but that was many years before this was filmed - and he is the 'star' boxer in this match. So it is no surprise that the action is really not all that interesting, although the film crew should be given credit for again doing a solid job of catching both the action in the foreground and the crowded little group of participants and spectators in the background. It also does provide perhaps the only moving footage of Edwards, who was once fairly well-known as a boxing writer and trainer in addition to his own career.
It is also interesting that the format of this fight was adapted even more heavily than was the format for the Corbett exhibition. The rounds were apparently only twenty seconds long, with footage of at least one of the rounds surviving. It does seem as if films like this did not remain common or popular for very long, which perhaps makes the genre one of a number of interesting studies in the changing tastes of early movie-goers.
In the previous year, the Edison Company had made a highly successful film series of a boxing match that involved the popular James J. Corbett, one portion of which survives. Corbett was both a champion boxer and a showman, and it is easy to explain why a movie of him boxing would be a success. But this was one of a number of movies that followed, using the same format but with boxers of far lesser quality and fame.
Billy Edwards was once a top lightweight, but that was many years before this was filmed - and he is the 'star' boxer in this match. So it is no surprise that the action is really not all that interesting, although the film crew should be given credit for again doing a solid job of catching both the action in the foreground and the crowded little group of participants and spectators in the background. It also does provide perhaps the only moving footage of Edwards, who was once fairly well-known as a boxing writer and trainer in addition to his own career.
It is also interesting that the format of this fight was adapted even more heavily than was the format for the Corbett exhibition. The rounds were apparently only twenty seconds long, with footage of at least one of the rounds surviving. It does seem as if films like this did not remain common or popular for very long, which perhaps makes the genre one of a number of interesting studies in the changing tastes of early movie-goers.
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- Snow Leopard
- Nov 2, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Билли Эдвардс и неизвестный
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 minute
- Color
- Sound mix
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