Robert Paul is a largely forgotten name today, but he was a major pioneer of British cinema, and was quick to grasp the commercial potential of cinema in ways that better known pioneers such as William Friese-Greene were not. He was more of a mechanic than a filmmaker making, with Birt Acres, his own camera on which to shoot films in 1895, and also Britain's first projector, the Animatograph, with which to screen them in 1896. Early in the 20th century he had a custom-made studio built in Muswell Hill.
Scene on the River was filmed in July 1896. It's a brief drama, filmed from the riverbank, in which we see a passenger on a boat accidentally drop their baby into the river (as you do). A smartly dressed gent in a waistcoat jumps into the river to rescue it. Unfortunately, you can't see anything of the rescue because a bunch of bystanders get between the camera and the action, which is a shame although it adds a sense of reality to the proceedings, even though the entire thing is undoubtedly staged.
