And not a very good fake at that. Biograph weren't the first to fake footage of a real incident - Vitagraph passed off a couple of model boats in a bathtub as an authentic sea battle a few years earlier - and they certainly weren't the best. I guess this blazing miniature model of San Francisco might have fooled a few people back in 1906 but it wouldn't fool anyone today. And in a way there's something a little tasteless about the opportunistic way in which early filmmakers cashed in on a natural disaster which killed countless people. Much of the film is obscured by smoke, and at any moment you expect to see a giant hand sneak into the top of the shot to wave it away.
2 Reviews
Three Historic Shorts
Michael_Elliott26 February 2008
San Francisco Disaster (1906)
*** (out of 4)
Leave it to Biograph (future home of Griffith) to make the first film based on the SF earthquake of 1906. From what I've read, the producer's tried to sell this off as actual footage but if you've seen the films dealing with the real thing then it's easy to see the fire here is a fake. Mildly entertaining but it can't touch the actual films of the destruction. G.W. Bitzer was the cinematographer.
Scenes in San Francisco, No. 1 (1906)
**** (out of 4)
Here's another film with actual footage from the 1906 earthquake. Once again the footage is quite striking as the destruction seems like the city would have been dead for a lot longer than it actually was. An interesting note is that in this film you see another man with a movie camera and he was actually making another film on this subject (San Francisco: Aftermath of an Earthquake). From American Mutoscope and Biograph, which makes you wonder why the above film was faked.
Scenes in San Francisco, No. 2 (1906)
**** (out of 4)
More footage from the earthquake but this film also includes footage from a refugee camp, which is quite striking.
*** (out of 4)
Leave it to Biograph (future home of Griffith) to make the first film based on the SF earthquake of 1906. From what I've read, the producer's tried to sell this off as actual footage but if you've seen the films dealing with the real thing then it's easy to see the fire here is a fake. Mildly entertaining but it can't touch the actual films of the destruction. G.W. Bitzer was the cinematographer.
Scenes in San Francisco, No. 1 (1906)
**** (out of 4)
Here's another film with actual footage from the 1906 earthquake. Once again the footage is quite striking as the destruction seems like the city would have been dead for a lot longer than it actually was. An interesting note is that in this film you see another man with a movie camera and he was actually making another film on this subject (San Francisco: Aftermath of an Earthquake). From American Mutoscope and Biograph, which makes you wonder why the above film was faked.
Scenes in San Francisco, No. 2 (1906)
**** (out of 4)
More footage from the earthquake but this film also includes footage from a refugee camp, which is quite striking.
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