Hat of Many Surprises (1901) User Reviews

Another great showing of early special effects.

[ofpsmith · 7/10 · 22 March 2016]

This picture sees Georges Melies with a giant hat pulling out several party guests, chairs, and a table to enjoy a nice dinner. In fact, even the pictures on the wall join in on the fun. Trouble is, everyone seems to be arguing. So when all of that is done, he puts them all back in their place. A quick, but fun journey into the early special effects. This one is amusing like the other Melies shorts, and it's a good 2 minutes worth of your time. This is just a nice, fun short film. I suppose if you have two minutes to spare, and you just want some fun, you can find this on YouTube. It's a fun, little, groundbreaking short, like the other Melies films. There's really not much else to say.

Another typical Georges Méliès outing...too typical, actually.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 9 September 2020]

Innovative filmmaker Georges Méliès was a stage magician before he turned filmmaker. It's pretty obvious when you see his films, as in at least a hundred of them he essentially does his stage act in front of the camera. Back in the late 1890s and early 1900s, his camera tricks wowed audiences who wondered how he managed to make folks appear and disappear...and he used some form of this is most of his films...not just the ones where he starred as the magician.

In this one, it's a pretty typical routine...so typical that you instantly can tell it's one of his films. After all, he's in it (sporting a nice and realistic wig) and he pulls all sorts of people out of a gigantic top hat. Of course, he actually just topped and re-started the camera after making changes in what was inside the hat...but I am pretty sure it surprised audiences back in the day.

Worth seeing BUT also something he did so many times you might just want to pass on this not so memorable version of his stage act.

Hat With Many Surprises, The

[Michael_Elliott · 1 April 2008]

Hat With Many Surprises, The (1901)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Chapeau à surprise

Mildly entertaining film has a magician (once again played by Melies) needing to set a table so he uses his magic hat. We start off with some small things being pulled out but we then move onto the chairs and eventually people. There's nothing overly special about this film as we've seen this type of thing from the director before but even with that said the movie remains watchable due to the nice work from Melies. The special effects are pretty good even though you can see the editing during a few of them and the movie ends with a nice laugh.

More Magical Transformations

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 13 November 2017]

A man, dressed as a magician, uses his top hat as a source for items for a dinner party. First he takes a scarf and turns it into a table. He then proceeds to fill the table with plate and utensils and so on. Eventually, he transforms the hat into one of huge proportions. Now he begins to pull the guests out of the big hat as well as chairs for them to sit in. It has the usual surprise conclusion.