Hooligan Assists the Magician (1900) User Reviews

Practically the same film as THE CLOWN AND THE ALCHEMIST

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 8 March 2008]

In the late 1890s and up to almost WWI, the Frenchman, Georges Méliès, made a huge number of wonderful short films that were significantly better than his competition. Instead of the usual dull 30 seconds to a minute and a half of static filming of mundane subjects (such as the work done by the Lumiere brothers or Edison), his films abounded with great camera trickery and wild stories. This was probably inspired by the fact he was a magician and then a film maker. His work was so popular that soon other film makers copied his films. Some made broad copies in the style of Méliès whereas others copied the films nearly exactly--never crediting the source--though they were invariably inferior films.

This film appears to actually be a case of an idea "borrowed" from Méliès and then re-made almost immediately by Edison in at least two versions--THE CLOWN AND THE ALCHEMIST and HOOLIGAN ASSISTS THE MAGICIAN. Both are very similar with all kinds of stop-motion magic that by today's and even Méliès standards very crudely done. This one is slightly better than THE CLOWN AND THE ALCHEMIST--partly because a film crew member isn't accidentally shown in several shots--as he IS in the other Edison film!

I Didn't Ask For Help

[boblipton · 5/10 · 10 February 2020]

A stage magician is performing his act when up runs Happy Hooligan, who tries to assist him, and makes hash of matters. The magician disappears and reappears with assistants to chastise the character.

This is, as others have noted, borrowed in part from Melies' magic-act movies, possible THE DAINAD's BARREL or THE CLOWN AAND THE ALCHEMIST from earlier in the year. It was a common practice of the era, with everyone producing butterfly dances, gardeners being sprinkled with hoses, and people necking in railroad cars. Just as today, the only thing original about 95% of the movies was the publicity.

However, what's noteworthy about this movie is the presence of the disrupting tramp. It's Happy Hooligan, from Frederick Opper's comic strip. If he wasn't the first character to make the leap from the comics to the movies, it was only because Buster Brown might have beaten him to it.

Edison Rips Melies

[Michael_Elliott · 15 December 2010]

Hooligan Assists the Magician (1900)

** (out of 4)

There's no question that French master Georges Melies had a large impact on cinema and there's also no question that other companies were ripping him off left and right. Edison made several rips on Melies and this here is one of them. The film features a magician setting up two large barrels and soon he's being tormented by people coming out of them. When he tries to catch one then another will pop out of the other barrel and so on. At just under 90-seconds this film seems very long simply because of how sloppy certain parts are. Melies films still hold up incredibly well today but that can't be said for this thing as all of the edits are very obviously done and it simply doesn't have the charm of a real Melies film. If anything, people should watch this just to see why Melies was so special.