We see 14 seconds of a boxing fight between Billy Edwards and an unknown contender. They're really going at each other and if they didn't just do it for the camera, but went on afterward like this, when the film stopped, they'd be exhausted pretty quickly. The long pants they're wearing would be totally unimaginable today. Same goes for the referee whose dress almost looked like a judge's outfit, really long black shirt he's wearing, almost a robe. What did look quite similar to today's standards was the end though when the round was over and the fighter sat down to be cared for by their coaches. The audience is having a great time as well looking and yelling at and cheering for the athletes. Okay short film all in all, neither among Dickson's best or worst.
6 Reviews
I ran across this in my closet the other day . . .
cricket3027 January 2013
Warning: Spoilers
. . . and I wanted to be quite sure to alert all you folks out there reading this to my possible "spoilers," as I wouldent want to remove a smidgin of suspense from each and every one of the 15.88 SECONDS (yup--you heard me correctly--this movie in its current entirety clocks in at LESS than 16 seconds, which we call two rides of the bronco around here) you'll have to appreciate all the fine points alluded to by the previous reviewer, as well at the "storyline" and "trivia" sections here. To be blunt, no matter how much lipstick you smear on a hog, it's still a swine! Either boxing rounds were a lot shorter than 3 minutes in 1895, OR the folks here at IMDb are intentionally misleading you when they try to say that ONE ROUND of the five originally filmed "survives." As Ernie used to say in the old days, when the baseball is 85% of the way onto Trumbull Avenue, it's "Longgggg gone!"
P.S.--If Billy's opponent is "Warwick," then shouldent this be called "Billy Edwards and Warwick" or "Billy Edwards and Warwick Somebody"? It's too bad Billy wasn't fighting the late Warwick Brown character from CSI, because THAT Warwick would have finished this fight against whichever of these teeny tiny guys is Billy in well under 15.88 seconds, in which case this movie might have survived as a complete whole.
P.S.--If Billy's opponent is "Warwick," then shouldent this be called "Billy Edwards and Warwick" or "Billy Edwards and Warwick Somebody"? It's too bad Billy wasn't fighting the late Warwick Brown character from CSI, because THAT Warwick would have finished this fight against whichever of these teeny tiny guys is Billy in well under 15.88 seconds, in which case this movie might have survived as a complete whole.
Not Much In Itself, But It Reveals What Was Popular In Its Day
Snow Leopard2 November 2005
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.
It's Time For Fisticuffs
PCC092112 September 2023
This film, also known as Billy Edwards Boxing (1895), is an exhibition fight. It was recorded by Edison filmmaker, William K. L. Dickson. It makes me laugh, that both boxers look exactly alike. This is the first round of the fight. The other four rounds have been lost to the sands of silent cinema times. Billy Edwards and the Unknown (1895), is the first recorded, sporting match, ever shown, to paying audiences. It is my guess, that this film was one of Edison's Kinetoscope films and was released in projection theaters later on. The film probably kept the 1895 tag, because it was shown in the Kinetoscope parlors, during that year. Billy Edwards and the Unknown (1895), is a 16 second piece of history, that still needs to be seen.
6.3 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.
6.3 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.
One of the Later Entries in Edison's "Boxing" Series
Tornado_Sam1 March 2019
1895 was a very important and changing year for Edison, for it was the very year the company's relatively new motion picture system would be topped. Ever since the first showing of motion pictures in the USA (on May 9, 1893 with the short films "Horse Shoeing" and "Blacksmith Scene") the new medium, courtesy of the Kinetograph, was already beginning to attract crowds; by the time the first Kinetoscope parlor opened on Broadway April the 14th 1894, the invention was becoming popular still, with its brief sneak peeks at popular vaudeville performers; but in 1895, a new and more sophisticated invention began to threaten this popularity: the Cinematograph. Using the Kinetoscope (which was seen most prominently in 1894) a single person alone would be able to glimpse moving pictures through a peephole in exchange for their money; but when the Lumiere Brothers' invention became introduced late 1895, a more developed medium overshadowed the Kinetograph. The moving pictures the Cinematograph could produce were longer and more detailed; they were smoother; and most importantly, they could be projected on a screen, which certainly beat Edison's Kinetoscope peephole by a lot. Thus, when 1896 hit, the company was already beginning to change their ways in accordance with the Lumieres' invention.
"Billy Edwards and the Unknown" was made earlier in 1895, before the competition began, and also appears to be the last known film Edison produced in the boxing genre--a genre which had been most popular in 1894. This genre had originally begun in 1891, a year some of Edison's earliest camera tests were shot: "Men Boxing", a boxing-themed movie starring amateurs, was among them. (I say "boxing-themed" because the men in it were only factory workers playing the parts of boxers, they were not true lightweight performers). In 1892, experimentation had continued with a series of sport-themed tests (including "Man on Parallel Bars", "Wrestling" and "Fencing"); once more, a boxing short featured among these. The genre then blossomed in 1894, with such boxers as James Corbett, Mike Leonard, and Eugene Hornbacker featured prominently in actual matches taking place within the Black Maria studio. Each match consisted of five or six thirty-second rounds which were then shown in the Kinetoscope parlors.
Why, one might ask, was the company obsessed with boxing? Simple answer: it was illegal in certain states, thus it was a huge hit with audiences. Humankind has always had the tendency to stray toward the wrong; so if Edison were to show the masses events that were banned and looked down upon, it was only natural everyone would flock to see it. Likewise was the case with the risque belly-dances and other dirty material: the company filmed it all. If you have anyone to blame for the garbage filmed in Hollywood today, blame it on them. The great inventor might have been responsible for the lightbulb and many other things, but let's face it: Edison was a dirty old man.
This brief feature from the popular series apparently had five complete rounds like all the others the company filmed, but like the earlier features from 1894, only one survives. The fifteen-second round consists of the former lightweight boxer Billy Edwards battling furiously against his opponent, an underdog who's last name was recorded as being Warwick (his first name is unknown). As the round ends, the blows subside and each go to their chairs in the corners of the ring for a short break. Their garb is slightly odd for boxing: white unitards, completely covering the bodies of both men. One might normally expect a more immodest outfit for such an energetic sport.
Likely as not, the main reason Edison stopped with the boxing after this was due to the Cinematograph. Not only was it more advanced than the Kinetograph, the Lumieres used their equipment to film scenes outdoors, something which the company had almost never done. The black background of the studio just couldn't cut it after awhile, so like the Lumieres, the Edison company too would begin to shoot on location by the time 1896 came around. In the meantime, they were making quite a fortune off these brief sneak peeks of popular performers filmed within the Black Maria.
"Billy Edwards and the Unknown" was made earlier in 1895, before the competition began, and also appears to be the last known film Edison produced in the boxing genre--a genre which had been most popular in 1894. This genre had originally begun in 1891, a year some of Edison's earliest camera tests were shot: "Men Boxing", a boxing-themed movie starring amateurs, was among them. (I say "boxing-themed" because the men in it were only factory workers playing the parts of boxers, they were not true lightweight performers). In 1892, experimentation had continued with a series of sport-themed tests (including "Man on Parallel Bars", "Wrestling" and "Fencing"); once more, a boxing short featured among these. The genre then blossomed in 1894, with such boxers as James Corbett, Mike Leonard, and Eugene Hornbacker featured prominently in actual matches taking place within the Black Maria studio. Each match consisted of five or six thirty-second rounds which were then shown in the Kinetoscope parlors.
Why, one might ask, was the company obsessed with boxing? Simple answer: it was illegal in certain states, thus it was a huge hit with audiences. Humankind has always had the tendency to stray toward the wrong; so if Edison were to show the masses events that were banned and looked down upon, it was only natural everyone would flock to see it. Likewise was the case with the risque belly-dances and other dirty material: the company filmed it all. If you have anyone to blame for the garbage filmed in Hollywood today, blame it on them. The great inventor might have been responsible for the lightbulb and many other things, but let's face it: Edison was a dirty old man.
This brief feature from the popular series apparently had five complete rounds like all the others the company filmed, but like the earlier features from 1894, only one survives. The fifteen-second round consists of the former lightweight boxer Billy Edwards battling furiously against his opponent, an underdog who's last name was recorded as being Warwick (his first name is unknown). As the round ends, the blows subside and each go to their chairs in the corners of the ring for a short break. Their garb is slightly odd for boxing: white unitards, completely covering the bodies of both men. One might normally expect a more immodest outfit for such an energetic sport.
Likely as not, the main reason Edison stopped with the boxing after this was due to the Cinematograph. Not only was it more advanced than the Kinetograph, the Lumieres used their equipment to film scenes outdoors, something which the company had almost never done. The black background of the studio just couldn't cut it after awhile, so like the Lumieres, the Edison company too would begin to shoot on location by the time 1896 came around. In the meantime, they were making quite a fortune off these brief sneak peeks of popular performers filmed within the Black Maria.
Boxing Match
Michael_Elliott17 May 2015
Billy Edwards and the Unknown (1895)
Entertaining "boxing" film from Edison shows about twenty-seconds of a lightweight boxing match between Billy Edwards and an unknown opponent. Edison, who would film just about anything and sell it to the public, got into the habit of filming boxing matches (about 20-30 seconds of each round) and then showing them to the public. I do question whether this here was from a real fight or if perhaps it was just set-up because the two boxers are really going at it and with this pace they'd been out of energy by the end of the round. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here from Edison but it's an interesting glimpse to a former popular boxer.
Entertaining "boxing" film from Edison shows about twenty-seconds of a lightweight boxing match between Billy Edwards and an unknown opponent. Edison, who would film just about anything and sell it to the public, got into the habit of filming boxing matches (about 20-30 seconds of each round) and then showing them to the public. I do question whether this here was from a real fight or if perhaps it was just set-up because the two boxers are really going at it and with this pace they'd been out of energy by the end of the round. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here from Edison but it's an interesting glimpse to a former popular boxer.
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