The Motion Picture Man (1910)
Literally thousands of people every day are wondering "how it's done" and this is the pictorial answer. No effort is made to give an elaborate exposition of the manufacture of a motion picture but the first part of the reel shows the actual making of a motion picture. It is a strong comedy idea for some of the actual happenings are used to make the laughs and they are funnier than made-to-order incidents. The things that happen to the photographer are sometimes much more amusing than the picture he is making and plenty happened to the man who turned the machine for the exposure of the film. An angry woman objects to her doorstep being used for one of the pictures and the players are showered with water thrown from an upstairs window. A kiss misplaced makes a lot of trouble and an energetic citizen overlooks the camera making a record of a street fight and telephones for the police. For several hundred feet the troubles are recorded, the incidents of the supposed picture being so divers that the audience wonders what it is all about. They are getting interested in the mimic play and wonder if it is a real production of merely a succession of fanciful scenes planned to show the troubles the picture maker has. Just about this point there is a break and there begins to run a short comedy in which the scenes the photographer was endeavoring to make are now shown in their proper order and with a few additional scenes to make a short farce. Two gay old boys meet a couple of charming girls and go to the park as a prelude to dinner. They have their photographs taken on postal cards "while you wait" and wander off in search of more fun while the plate is being developed. The wives happen along and stop to look at the photographer's stock. He is just finishing off some cards and they are angered, though not surprised, to find their recreant souses with two good looking girls. They hide until the quartet returns and then follow them out of the park where the day of reckoning soon comes. The farce is lively and the fact that the actual taking of some of the scenes has been witnessed adds to the interest. Anything that pertains to the "behind the scenes" of the picture is of absorbing interest and here the details are presented in most attractive fashion. All of the incidents are lively and in the matter of productions the happenings are staged with a realism that causes the spectator to forget that is all a cleverly planned presentation and not an actual happening.
All Releases
Domestic
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International
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Worldwide
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GenresComedy
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| George Reehm | |
| Harry Coleman | |
| Harry Myers | |
| Noah Reynolds |
