Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show

Edison's Uncle Josh character was back again, this time trying to enjoy a fun evening watching moving pictures but I guess his old fashioned sensibilities were just not up to it. Thomas Edison actually seems to be spoofing himself in this one and Uncle Josh seems to be Edison's take on the way the public reacted to his moving picture shows. In what might be a nod to the Lumiere Brothers Josh is scared silly by the image of a train rushing right toward the screen. Curious, he jumps down on the stage for a closer look. When the image of young lovers kissing he gets so insensed he tears down the screen.

That kissing scene was probably inspired by Edison's own 30 second short from 1896 THE KISS which got him condemned by clergymen across the country for capturing such an intimate moment on film but seeing Uncle Josh's reaction is still hilarious even after all these years.

"Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show" was a derivative imitation, or remake, of the English film "The Countryman and the Cinematograph" (1901), the latter of which was made by Robert W. Paul. Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company likely would've simply duped Paul's film, which they did with other European pictures, if it hadn't featured a cinematograph projecting the films, as opposed to "The Edison Projecting Kinetoscope". Thus, "Uncle John at the Moving Picture Show" provided the company, which also manufactured and sold projectors in addition to films, an opportunity for advertisement. At least in what survives of it now, Paul's film doesn't feature title cards, while Porter's film goes to some length to describe its product and films-within-the-film. The films-within-the-film include a title card each, including one for "The Black Diamond Express", which was a subject made a couple times for the company and which probably had to be filmed again, from a longer distance, for this film. Reportedly, the dancing-girl film, "Parisian Dancer" was from the Edison subject "Parisian Dance" (1897), although every filmmaker made numerous dance films back then.

The entire plot and optical effects of matte shots and optical reduction follow what Paul had already accomplished. Country rube climbs on stage to dance with dancing-girl film - he runs away from approaching train film - he tears down screen after seeing himself in third film, revealing the projectionist - punitive ending. The title cards, which are an early example of such, seem to be Porter's only original contribution to the subject (back then, magic lantern slides usually served to introduce a film's title at exhibitions). At least since Paul's film is now missing some footage, this remake shows us what's missing.

This unrefined but generally amusing short feature uses the Edison company's 'Uncle Josh' character to satirize the ways that some of the earliest movie audiences responded to motion pictures. Even at the time, it was not a new idea, and it almost certainly owes a debt to the previous year's "The Countryman and the Cinematograph", which was shorter and somewhat simpler, but also more carefully-crafted.

The story in "Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show" starts out with the Uncle Josh character giving his humorous over-reactions to what he sees on the screen. It becomes quite exaggerated as it goes on, and it is interesting that this kind of audience parody was such a popular idea in the early days of cinema. While viewers in the earliest years of cinema probably took a while to get used to the idea that the moving pictures on a screen were not real, movie-goers today seem to have a harder time in looking at the actual content from a critical viewpoint.

As a movie, this version of the idea would have been better if it had been more carefully made, but it contains some amusing ideas that provide some humorous moments.

Uncle Josh is identified to the audience as the audience. As he watches the picture show, he can't except the reality from the film. What he sees he excepts as real action and not a captured film. For 1902, Uncle Josh represents the people of 1902. Many people were so use to stage performances that they didn't grasp the concept of motion pictures. This film short is actually non-fiction when you think about it.