cricket30 Review of The Interrupted Bathers

The Interrupted Bathers (1902)

Long-ago sex crime: Filmed, or "re-enacted"?

[7/10 · 7 March 2013]

Before you answer the question from my summary, watch this 61.96-second short at least five times, using the zoom and slo-mo functions, as I did. Also, keep in mind that this piece of so-called Edison "entertainment" is from 1902, before the Hayes Code curtailed such things as Clara Bow's topless scene in the first-ever Oscar "Best Picture" WINGS (1927), let alone today's M.P.A.A. ratings system. Furthermore, do not forget that Edison is the guy who BURNED AN ELEPHANT ALIVE at Coney Island, N.Y., in front of a cheering crowd of men, to demonstrate how good his electricity was at killing things (in front of a sign reading something like "Dumbo on a stick, 25 cents, starting May 2nd"). When I watch Edison's INTERRUPTED BATHERS, I see two ruffians steal all the clothes of four women bathers, chasing them off-screen to the left, most likely to a junk yard of some sort, from which the lone survivor of the quadruple rape\triple slaying is able to salvage a piece of debris to cover her nudity until she likely is hunted down and finished off. Would Edison's cameramen prevent such an atrocity, merely re-enact a current headline, of hire the degenerates to pull it off while they filmed just enough to titillate the sort of "fan" who appreciates elephants being burned at the stake, but not enough to result in conviction by a jury bought and paid for? Knowing that the movie NETWORK's TV-News subsidized terrorists is based on the legendary Edison snuff film ring, the third option is the obvious truth.