Rip Van Winkle

Name: Rip Van Winkle
Genre: Short, Comedy
Duration: 4 min
Rating: 4.7
Cast: Joseph Jefferson

IMDb RATING

4.7/10

453

YOUR RATING

Joseph Jefferson in Awakening of Rip (1896)

Short Comedy

An abridged version of the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a lazy American man who wanders off one day with his dog Wolf into the Kaatskill Mountains, where he runs into an odd group of men drinking... Read allAn abridged version of the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a lazy American man who wanders off one day with his dog Wolf into the Kaatskill Mountains, where he runs into an odd group of men drinking and playing bowls. He drinks some of their mysterious brew and passes out. When he wakes ... Read allAn abridged version of the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a lazy American man who wanders off one day with his dog Wolf into the Kaatskill Mountains, where he runs into an odd group of men drinking and playing bowls. He drinks some of their mysterious brew and passes out. When he wakes up under a tree he is astonished to find that 20 years have passed and things are very dif... Read all

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IMDb RATING

4.7/10

453

YOUR RATING

See production, box office & company info

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Trivia
This film is actually a compilation of 8 films: Awakening of Rip (1896), Exit of Rip and the Dwarf (1896), Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow (1896), Rip Meeting the Dwarf (1896), Rip's Toast to Hudson (1896), Rip's Toast (1896), Rip Passing Over the Mountain (1896) and Rip's Twenty Years' Sleep (1896). They are in the 3-disk boxed DVD set called "More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931" (2004), compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation from 5 American film archives. These films were restored by the Library of Congress from its paper print collection, have a collective running time of about 3 minutes, 30 seconds, and an added piano music score.

Goofs
In "Rip's Twenty Year Sleep", just after Rip falls to the ground, the Hudson crew ducks off-screen behind the rocks on purpose. Just as the film is about to end, however, one of them can be seen to be moving at the edge of the screen, getting up from his hiding place apparently because he thought the cameraman was finished filming.

Connections
Edited from Awakening of Rip (1896)

User reviews9

Review

Featured review

RIp van Winkle: The Serial

For a series of films made in 1896 this is pretty much ahead of its time. Think about it, cinema was less than twelve months old, Porter's Great Train Robbery - generally (if probably inaccurately) considered the first narrative film - was still seven years in the future, and yet here's a doughty old chap named Joseph Jefferson indulging in a few exaggerated gestures as he takes on the role of Rip van Winkle (a role I believe he was famous for playing on stage). By today's standards the film is amateurish, but for its day it's first class. You have to laugh at their interpretation of a dwarf though - a normal sized man crouching as he waddles around with a barrel on his shoulder. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in cinema's infancy.

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