Georges Melies, the pioneering French master of trick cinema, puts his trickery away here to present us with a straightforward slapstick (geddit?) comedy that is mildly amusing but is well below his best work. Melies himself plays a glue salesman who finds his prospective customers chased away by a couple of sceptical policemen. The vendor gets his revenge by gluing the cops arms together as they sleep on a park bench only to have the tables turn on him when they later glue him to a door. The acting is very over the top (e.g. holding hands to one's head then flinging them skyward, etc) and the pacing is a a little off with too much time spent on the first scene.
4 Reviews
Mildly Entertaining Change of Pace From Méliès
Snow Leopard10 November 2004
In this mildly interesting change of pace, Georges Méliès sets aside his trademark array of special camera effects, and turns instead to slapstick, with results that are only somewhat entertaining. It's a little goofy and sometimes rather bland, yet it does have some good moments, and there are a couple of fairly basic special effects thrown into the mix.
The simple story starts with a salesman touting the superior quality of the glue that he is hawking, and then getting into a series of confrontations with some of his detractors. There are one or two good gags, although some of the action doesn't really go anywhere.
Méliès had enough of a feel for slapstick that he often used small sequences of it effectively in his special effects or science fiction movies, and so parts of this are also decent. The idea here just doesn't have quite enough to it for it to be able to fill up the whole running time with entertaining material.
The simple story starts with a salesman touting the superior quality of the glue that he is hawking, and then getting into a series of confrontations with some of his detractors. There are one or two good gags, although some of the action doesn't really go anywhere.
Méliès had enough of a feel for slapstick that he often used small sequences of it effectively in his special effects or science fiction movies, and so parts of this are also decent. The idea here just doesn't have quite enough to it for it to be able to fill up the whole running time with entertaining material.
For its time, an excellent and STILL entertaining film
planktonrules2 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Of all the early film makers, my favorite is definitely Méliès, as he was extremely inventive and was responsible for the first real movie, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. Unlike the average "movies" of the day (that were often only one or two minutes long), his films had real plots, amazing sets for the time and actually are still pretty watchable (unlike many of the Lumiere and Edison shorts).
This movie is a cute little silent comedy about a glue salesman who is making a pitch on the street as a little kiosk. The crowd is very interested but two know-it-all cops chase everyone off--even though it is a WONDERFUL glue (I'd sure buy some). So, in revenge, the salesman later sees the cops sleeping next to each other holding hands (an interesting development--was he implying these were gay cops?). So, he glues them together and thinks he has the last laugh. That is, until them later glue him to a wall. This instantly bonding super-glue is a cute silly idea and makes the film very entertaining and funny.
If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.
This movie is a cute little silent comedy about a glue salesman who is making a pitch on the street as a little kiosk. The crowd is very interested but two know-it-all cops chase everyone off--even though it is a WONDERFUL glue (I'd sure buy some). So, in revenge, the salesman later sees the cops sleeping next to each other holding hands (an interesting development--was he implying these were gay cops?). So, he glues them together and thinks he has the last laugh. That is, until them later glue him to a wall. This instantly bonding super-glue is a cute silly idea and makes the film very entertaining and funny.
If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.
Melies Plays with Glue
Michael_Elliott16 August 2012
Good Glue Sticks (1907)
*** (out of 4)
aka La colle universelle
Charming film from Georges Melies has a street vendor selling some very good glue but a couple jerk cops run off all of his customers so he decides to seek revenge when he catches the two sleeping. GOOD GLUE STICKS lives up to its title as being good. Fans of the French master should really enjoy the fast-pacing of this one as it pretty much doesn't stop or slow down once everything gets started and going into action. Some of the best scenes are the mad dash at the end when all sorts of thing start to go wrong and the seller is just trying to get away from it all. The trick shot of what he does to the two cops is rather obvious but it's still charming in its own way. There are a couple funny scenes throughout the six-minute running time so fans of the director will certainly want to check this one out.
*** (out of 4)
aka La colle universelle
Charming film from Georges Melies has a street vendor selling some very good glue but a couple jerk cops run off all of his customers so he decides to seek revenge when he catches the two sleeping. GOOD GLUE STICKS lives up to its title as being good. Fans of the French master should really enjoy the fast-pacing of this one as it pretty much doesn't stop or slow down once everything gets started and going into action. Some of the best scenes are the mad dash at the end when all sorts of thing start to go wrong and the seller is just trying to get away from it all. The trick shot of what he does to the two cops is rather obvious but it's still charming in its own way. There are a couple funny scenes throughout the six-minute running time so fans of the director will certainly want to check this one out.
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