The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken (1901) User Reviews

Oh, Come Now! She Wasn't That Ugly(SPOILERS)

[I_Am_The_Taylrus · 5/10 · 18 February 2007]

SPOILERS

Now, I enjoy a good silent film every now and then, but I do not need to actually enjoy watching them. I did not enjoy watching this one. This is probably the worst silent film that I have ever seen. It is not funny, and it is actually very cruel. The poor maid. She was not even that ugly. At least I did not think so, I did not see her face.

Here is the basis of this silent short. An old maid is going to have here picture taken. The only problem is that whenever she looks at something it falls over or sometimes it even breaks. A hanger breaks. A clock falls off the wall and shatters. A mirror cracks. When she is finally going to have her picture taken the camera breaks and dust and smoke goes everywhere, knocking the maid of her chair.

Overall, this is a very cruel and cheesy Edison movie. I really do not recommend watching this silent short, even though it is only one minute long. You will not enjoy watching this. You could spend this time watching a silent short like Train Pulling Into Station, or Roadhay Garden Scene, or maybe even Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge. Watch a good short, and not this.

5/10

Recommended Shorts: Roadhay Garden Scene.

A rather cruel and confusing film

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 22 November 2006]

This film really improves if you first read the summary of the film written by the folks at the Edison Production company, as it explains what's happening--without this, it's a bit confusing. And the explanation reveals that this is a rather cruel little film that makes fun of how unattractive the old maid is. It seems the lady wants her picture taken and goes to a photographer's studio. There, she is so hideous that the photos on the wall fly off when she looks at them, the clock falls off the wall, the mirror breaks and finally the camera explodes when it tries to take her photo! I really think most modern audiences would shrink back at such a mean concept, but kids and teens might still think it's cute. Regardless, it's an interesting concept only executed in a mediocre manner. Like all of the very early films, it's quite brief and silent.

Sexist gag does real disservice to men!

[cricket30 · 5/10 · 28 February 2013]

The star of this Edison short, Gilbert Saroni, presumably is a guy, because my copies of 1870s (when Gil presumably would have been born) American baby name registries do not list this as an androgynous moniker. The idea that the Edison people would need to cast a MAN in order to have a person ugly enough to make pictures and clocks fall off walls, break mirrors and cameras, etc. is an OUTRAGEOUS insult to a sex which includes Robert Pattinson and Channing Tatum today, not to mention Cary Grant and Michael York from yesteryear. Furthermore, the light bulb folks would not have needed to venture very far from their East Coast headquarters to find someone that would fit the mirror-breaking bill to a tee. I'm talking about May Irwin, of course, the "star" of their alleged "hit" from several years earlier, THE KISS. Certainly the smoocher who drove co-star John C. Whatever to an early suicide would have broken more mirrors than the comic script character Broomhilda has in all her 5,000 years!

Probably An Old Gag Even Then

[Snow Leopard · 21 July 2005]

The old gag that serves as the premise for this movie was probably a bit stale even at the time. It is, though, more than just a one-shot movie, since it offers a short series of developments that vary the basic idea a little bit each time.

The idea is that the face of the "Old Maid" is so unappealing that even inanimate objects demonstrate their displeasure, as in the old jokes that start something like, "he was so ugly that …". Even before the finale, when her photograph is taken, she has several reminders of this.

It's honestly not really very funny, but at least it is not as mean-spirited as it could have been. It might have been noticeably better with a little more careful planning of the stop-action effects, which don't flow very smoothly, though some allowances also have to be made for it being a pioneering effort in that direction. It's always good to be generous in evaluating these very old movies, but this one just isn't all that good.

Running gag in pioneer Edison film

[zpzjones · 5/10 · 12 September 2018]

Withstanding the political correctness of some modern day viewers, this film is humourous in it's own right. It has the kind of low brow comedy that would have been featured in vaudeville to the derisive laughter of the audience. Vaudeville would have only been a few years old when this film was made, so the idea of an ugly person man/or woman having bad luck in every step of his life would have been sort of fresh. The star in this short is probably a man in drag rather than a real woman. He/She is showcased to be so ugly or unattractive that pictures fall off the wall, the still camera won't work and blows up, the mirror he looks into shatters which is not very well done as the surviving film is dark. The last gag of the mirror shattering was used famously in the 1960s "The Munsters" tv show classic. Every time Herman Munster looked at a mirror reflection of himself, the mirror would shatter. So it's good to see where the origins of this gag came from or at least one of it's earliest incarnations on film.

Done With Vivacity, If Not Originality

[boblipton · 7/10 · 18 February 2020]

An old maid comes into a photography studio for a portrait. There's a clock on the wall and a full length mirror, and you can probably guess what happens to them as she primps.

As the other reviewers have noted, the gags are old enough to be enshrined in sayings that are as old as can be. "A face that can stop a clock" is probably as old as houseclocks. Nonetheless, this early short with Edwin S. Porter and George Fleming directing is enlivened by the lady in the title role, and the gag that caps the expected one is performed with gusto, leg-waving and a showing of undergarments that leave little to the imagination.