The Fatal Hand
- 1907
Artistic Creation
This burlesque film fantasy has striking sexual overtones - and a surprising feminist twist
Man creates woman in his magic drawing, but as she is liberated from her frame prison she starts to demand more. Walter Booth was 'lightning sketch' artist and maker of 'trick' films for Robert Paul. In this somewhat proto-feminist film (presumably inspired by the Greek legend of Pygmalion) his artist character draws a young woman, who magically comes to life... in sections. Each time she asks for further body parts until she is complete. But, understandably, she flees the moment he offers her the unwanted 'gift' of a baby.
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Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film
The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film
The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.
51 videos in this collection
1
The Fatal Hand
2
Aberdeen University Quatercentenary Celebrations
3
Drat That Boy!
4
The "?" Motorist
5
Blackfriars Bridge
6
Extraordinary Cab Accident
7
The Dancer's Dream
8
The Medium Exposed? Or, A Modern Spiritualistic Seance
9
The Derby
10
A Miner's Daily Life
11
Footpads
12
Coronation Durbar at Delhi
13
A Lively Quarter-day
14
The Waif and the Wizard; or, The Home Made Happy
15
The Launch of H.M.S. Albion
16
Nurses Attending the Wounded
17
Breakers
18
Mounted Infantry
19
Scrooge; Or, Marley's Ghost
20
Comic Costume Race
21
Come Along, Do!
22
Gordon Highlanders Leaving for the Boer War
23
Up the River
24
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Paul (St Paul's: South 3)
25
The Kiddies' Cakewalk
26
Robbery
27
Two A.M.; Or, The Husband's Return
28
Sirdar's Reception at Guildhall
29
Rough Sea at Dover
30
Rocky Shore
31
Surprising a Picket
32
Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II
33
Undressing Extraordinary; Or, The Troubles of a Tired Traveller
34
Tetherball, Or Do-do
35
Mr. Pecksniff Fetches the Doctor
36
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Paul (St Paul's: South 1)
37
Tommy Atkins in the Park
38
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Paul (St Paul's: South 4)
39
Jubilee Procession
40
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Paul (York Road 1)
41
The Gordon Highlanders
42
The Twins' Tea Party
43
His only Pair
44
Delhi Durbar
45
The Extraordinary Waiter
46
The Deonzo Brothers
47
Royal Train
48
Artistic Creation
49
His Brave Defender
50
Queen Victoria's Jubilee
51