Four black minstrels turn into white clowns and back again when they hit or kick each other.
Social & External
The people behind it
Two of the models of Toulouse Lautrec take a happy break from their posing.
The homeless Polycarpe steals a rifle from some careless society sportsmen and goes on a mindless shooting spree. (MoMA)
A mischievous child feeds his father a laxative, leading to disruptive bouts of intestinal disorder—and an unexpected reward. (MoMA)
Artheme takes his elderly uncle for a walk in his wheelchair, but abandons the invalid in the woods overnight when he spots a pretty girl. (MoMA)
A jolly housekeeper brings new meaning to the notion of “home entertainment” with a handsome new portable phonograph that causes people, furniture, and buildings to rock and roll through the magic of stop-motion animation. (MoMA)
In a scheme that is all the more convincing on silent film, Polydor attempts to fool a high-society mob with a no-talent singer who lip-synchs recordings from a hidden Gramophone. (MoMA)
Singer Pik Nik tests the power of song with an earth-shaking voice that causes people to pass out, walls to collapse, cars to go backwards—and eventually lands him in jail. (MoMA)
John and Flora meet at a ball, but neither can do these modern dances, so they sit out… and run into each other later at a dance studio. Bunny exudes his usual Pickwickian charm. Miss Finch gets involved in a nice bit of physical comedy when her gawkiness makes the dance lesson less than successful.
Hughie Mack, Eddie Dunn, and Frank Kingsley secretly leave their homes to enjoy a night out without their wives' knowledge. The wives find out about their husbands' escapade and decide to act. The wives employ a female detective to "vamp" the husbands, hoping to gather grounds for divorce. The rest of the short film details the ensuing comedic situations as the detective attempts to ensnare the men and they try to avoid getting caught.
Snub Pollard and Marie Mosquini are to be married, with Ernie Morrison as their best man. It's the usual gag-filled Pollard one-reeler, with William Gillespie pointing out that if she wants to get married, he has a marriage license too.
The story involves various misunderstandings and entanglements that occur between two married couples, the Browns (Glenn Tryon & Vivien Oakland) and the Dazzles (Tyler Brooke & Anita Garvin). The two couples have apartments across the hall from one another, and all four plan to attend a costume ball together. But after each husband expresses unhappiness with his wife's costume the women angrily refuse to go to the party. The two husbands decide to go "stag" and pick up dates, but when Mrs. Brown changes her mind about attending, and Mr. Dazzle and Mr. Brown switch costumes, mix-ups result.
The Newlyweds move into their new flat and prepare to entertain their uncle.
Sweedie, the cook, decides that it would be nice to learn to swim, so goes to a "dry land" swimming class for instruction. She is thrown out of the class after fighting with several of the members and goes home, where she fills the bathtub with water and proceeds to learn to swim.
Exasperated by his playboy son, a wealthy man sends him to Canada to become a Royal Canadian Mountie, in hopes that the young man will learn something about life.
They were two hobos, black and white, master and man, a regular slave driver white, while black went off for the eats. But Cleopatra and her sweet-potato pies ended the despotism. She saved the "lovin' man" of her race. Tabasco and an officer of the law did it, while white made a fast retreating speck up the track.
Pal the dog saves a kidnapped baby from raging waterfalls and hungry alligators. (MoMA)
Intelligent monkeys, dogs, and ducks enact a spoof of boxing dramas. (MoMA)
Mother, father and daughter go to the park. The women doze off on a bench while the father plays a hide-and-seek game with a girl, blindfolded. Charlie leads him into a lake. Both dozing ladies on the bench fall for Charlie and invite him for dinner. The father returns home with a friend. Charlie rushes upstairs and dresses like a woman, shaving his mustache. Both men fall for Charlie.
Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.
While streetworker Mickey romances Minnie, Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdie take control of his steamroller and it's full speed ahead on a very destructive ride.
The Little Fellow finds the girl of his dreams and work on a family farm. He helps defend the farm against criminals, and all seems well, until he discovers the girl of his dreams already has someone in her life. Unwilling to be a problem in their lives, he takes to the road, though he is seen skipping and swinging his cane as if happy to be back on the road where he knows he belongs.
Mickey has been reading Alice in Wonderland, and falls asleep. He finds himself on the other side of the mirror, where the furniture is alive.
Mickey accidentally takes a seal home, after it sneaks into his picnic basket. When Mickey takes a bath, the seal is discovered and Mickey returns him to the park. Later, however, Mickey and Pluto discover that the bathroom is filled with seals!
Donald Duck is at the beach and tries to ride a rubber horse. He notices Pluto sleeping at the shore and decides to have some fun with him by sending the rubber horse over to Pluto which completely mesmerizes him. Meanwhile, a tribe of ants abduct Donald's picnic lunch. Donald lays out fly paper to stop the ants. Pluto follows one of the ants and, of course, he and later Donald become enmeshed in the fly paper
Donald continually heckles Mickey's magic act, but Mickey bests him at every turn. Donald shoots off a magic pistol that causes all the stage props to fall down on them at the finish of the act.
The story of a big party during which Jacques Tati brings together audience members, performers, clowns, children, and himself.
The Big Bad Wolf torments Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs.
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Donald is shoveling the snow off his walk; Chip 'n' Dale are shoveling their branch. Donald tricks them into shoveling his walk. Angered, they sneak into his house, where he's getting ready to make popcorn. They've never seen this before, but they love it. They stow away in the box, then make off with the bowl of popped corn.
Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".
A TV movie special that compiles of a few Looney Tunes episodes centered around an episode of a Christmas Carol, with the part of Scrooge played by Yosemite Sam.
This Oscar-winning short tells of a bull who preferred to sit under trees and smell flowers to clashing horns with his fellow animals. As luck would have it, an untimely bee reveals Ferdinand's ferocious side via pained howls and wild stomping. This lands him in the bull-fighting arena amidst characters based on Walt's animators with a matador reportedly modeled after Walt himself.
After a wizard's spell goes awry, 12th-century Gallic knight Godefroy de Papincourt, Count of Montmirail finds himself transported to 1993, along with his dimwitted servant, Jacquouille la Fripouille. Startled and perplexed by modern technology, the duo run amok, destroying cars and causing chaos until they meet Beatrice de Montmirail, an aristocratic descendant of the nobleman, who may be able to help them get back to 1123.
Farmer Donald goes through his farmer day until a fly causes him to lose control while milking a cow.
Georges Méliès' adaptation of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is most distinguished, today, for being a color film of the classic story. Color was rare in 1902 (and many years after) as non-tinted color has to be hand painted on the film; this was an arduous task. Also notable is the film's short running time of approximately five minutes. Much of the original work is not covered, but viewers were expected to be familiar with the story, and enjoy the filmed highlights. There are a couple of scenes missing; according to contemporary reports, Gulliver's shipwreck was certainly included. You can do a lot in a few minutes, as Mr. Méliès includes a re-make of his own "Une partie de cartes" (1896), which already looked like something previously covered by the Lumière Brothers.
Chip and Dale are starving in their tree home when they notice a plentiful supply of acorns on an island in a lake. To get to the island, they borrow a miniature model ship of Donald's to sail on. The irate Donald, however, doesn't appreciate them stealing his ship and makes several attempts to get it back and thwart their scheme to get to their acorn paradise. Chip and Dale are, of course, always one step ahead of Donald.
Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them.
