Although IMDb lists this as a film by Louis Feuillade it is actually one of Alice Guy's - and very good it is too. As with quite a few of these early comedies, the film focuses on the pranks of a mischievous boy, this one in possession of a large pot of glue that offers limitless opportunities for pranks. It's not long before the dignity of adults is disintegrated when they find their feet stuck to steps or their posteriors to bicycle seats. Some of the scenes are genuinely funny, and although the film is fairly primitive by modern standards, it shows a good deal of sophistication for the era in which it was made and offers a good example of how far cinema had progressed not only in the twelve years since its inception, but also in the previous couple of years.
5 Reviews
That Feuillade is a Great Guy
boblipton4 September 2009
Although the IMDb lists this as a Feuillade movie, the notes on the Gaumont set issued by Kino shows this as an Alice Guy movie. Given the relative sophistication of the multiple shot set-up, I'd have to go along with Kino .... who is likely to be more knowledgeable anyway.
This is a very simple comedy: a young boy comes across a pot of glue, and starts to spread it around -- and people get caught in it: a basic French slapstick of the period, but whereas most of them had very simple camera set-ups, straight-on for the action, this one shows a good deal more sophistication in its positioning, as we get more of a side-view in several of the set-ups, and a definite outdoors setting, which Alice Guy had been doing for a couple of years, while Feuillade was still stuck on the stage with pieces like LA BOUS-BOUS-MIE.
This is a very simple comedy: a young boy comes across a pot of glue, and starts to spread it around -- and people get caught in it: a basic French slapstick of the period, but whereas most of them had very simple camera set-ups, straight-on for the action, this one shows a good deal more sophistication in its positioning, as we get more of a side-view in several of the set-ups, and a definite outdoors setting, which Alice Guy had been doing for a couple of years, while Feuillade was still stuck on the stage with pieces like LA BOUS-BOUS-MIE.
Yes, this is now officially an Alice Guy film
planktonrules5 February 2010
Apparently, after the review by Joeythebrit was posted a few months back, IMDb updated this film--giving proper credit to Alice Guy for directing this short. I noticed that the exact same problem now exists for "Course à la Saucisse"--a Guy film that is still credited to someone else. Perhaps this other film will soon be updated as well.
A jerky kid happens upon a bucket of glue. He decides to have fun and runs about applying glue to everything--with insane results (that's SOME powerful glue!!). It's all very tongue-in-cheek and ridiculous--but highly entertaining. I loved seeing everyone sticking to things as if this was super glue! Quite cute and quite well done.
A jerky kid happens upon a bucket of glue. He decides to have fun and runs about applying glue to everything--with insane results (that's SOME powerful glue!!). It's all very tongue-in-cheek and ridiculous--but highly entertaining. I loved seeing everyone sticking to things as if this was super glue! Quite cute and quite well done.
Gaumont ascriptions - as bad as a boy let loose with a glue-pot
kekseksa5 November 2018
Ascriptions by Gaumont with respect to films of this period are not to be trusted. The only means we have of dating films from this period is by their position in the 1908 Gaumont catalogue which, luckily, seems to be very straightforwadly chronological. For more on this see my reviews of La Vérité sur l'homme-singe (c. Jan 1907), La Course à la saucisse (March 1907) and Le Billet de banque (c. April-May 1907).
Alice Guy got engaged to Herbert Blaché on Christmas Day, 1906. They married on 4 March and she resigned her post at Gaumont immediately afterwards in order to accompany him to the US where he had been charged by Gaumont with the marketing of phonoscenes.
These phonoscenes ("talkies" based mainly on operas and popula songs) were a major priority for Gaumont who believed - twenty years too early - that they represented the future of film. Over a hundred were made at this time and Alice Guy was in charge of their difficult (the actors, sometimes a large cast, had to mime in playback to the recordings) and time-consuming production.
So already by late 1906 many of the comedy shorts were being directed by her three very capable assistants - Louis Feuillade, who was responsible for all the scripts including those directed by Guy herself), Roméo Bosetti and Étiene Arnaud. In most cases we do not in practice know who the director was.
Guy did however certainly find time to direct two films in early 1907 - Les Résulats du féminisme (which she much later remade in the US) and L'Asssassin (a "grand guignol" melodrama which she mentions in her biography). These are very notably different in style from the more slapstick comedies made by the three lads. They are also probably the last films made by Guy before her resignation and departure at the beginning of March.
This film and La Glu, also wrongly attributed by Gaumont to Guy, appear long afterwrds in the catalogue. To illustrate, La Vérité sur l'homme-singe (director unknown, which follows the Christmas films made in 1906) is number 1570, Guy's Les Résulats du féminisme (Jan-Feb 1907) is 1573 and L'Assassin (Jan-Feb 1907) is 1574. Arnaud's La Ceinture Electrqiue, almost certainly made after the departure of Guy and perfomed in London in pril 1907) is probably March 1907 and is number 1584 in the catalogue. Le Billet de banque (April-May), wrongly ascribed to Guy, is number 1616.
Le Frotteur (July-August 1907) is much later still in the catalogue (number 1648) and must have been made many months after Guy's departure. The same applies to La Glu (1666) which was probably made in about October 1907 and was shown in the US in November.
All these films (regardless of director) would have been written by Feuillade. They could have been directed by Feuillade himself or by Roméo Bosetti or by Étienne Arnaud. The later ones were obviously not made by Guy who was at the time rather preoccupied with giving birth to her first child, Simone in New Jersey (born in fact in September 1907).
Alice Guy got engaged to Herbert Blaché on Christmas Day, 1906. They married on 4 March and she resigned her post at Gaumont immediately afterwards in order to accompany him to the US where he had been charged by Gaumont with the marketing of phonoscenes.
These phonoscenes ("talkies" based mainly on operas and popula songs) were a major priority for Gaumont who believed - twenty years too early - that they represented the future of film. Over a hundred were made at this time and Alice Guy was in charge of their difficult (the actors, sometimes a large cast, had to mime in playback to the recordings) and time-consuming production.
So already by late 1906 many of the comedy shorts were being directed by her three very capable assistants - Louis Feuillade, who was responsible for all the scripts including those directed by Guy herself), Roméo Bosetti and Étiene Arnaud. In most cases we do not in practice know who the director was.
Guy did however certainly find time to direct two films in early 1907 - Les Résulats du féminisme (which she much later remade in the US) and L'Asssassin (a "grand guignol" melodrama which she mentions in her biography). These are very notably different in style from the more slapstick comedies made by the three lads. They are also probably the last films made by Guy before her resignation and departure at the beginning of March.
This film and La Glu, also wrongly attributed by Gaumont to Guy, appear long afterwrds in the catalogue. To illustrate, La Vérité sur l'homme-singe (director unknown, which follows the Christmas films made in 1906) is number 1570, Guy's Les Résulats du féminisme (Jan-Feb 1907) is 1573 and L'Assassin (Jan-Feb 1907) is 1574. Arnaud's La Ceinture Electrqiue, almost certainly made after the departure of Guy and perfomed in London in pril 1907) is probably March 1907 and is number 1584 in the catalogue. Le Billet de banque (April-May), wrongly ascribed to Guy, is number 1616.
Le Frotteur (July-August 1907) is much later still in the catalogue (number 1648) and must have been made many months after Guy's departure. The same applies to La Glu (1666) which was probably made in about October 1907 and was shown in the US in November.
All these films (regardless of director) would have been written by Feuillade. They could have been directed by Feuillade himself or by Roméo Bosetti or by Étienne Arnaud. The later ones were obviously not made by Guy who was at the time rather preoccupied with giving birth to her first child, Simone in New Jersey (born in fact in September 1907).
The Mischievous Boys and Woman of Early Cinema
Cineanalyst9 April 2020
"The Glue," or "Tommy and the Gluepot," is a variation on a common formula or two of early cinema: that of a boy making mischief throughout town (i.e. James Williamson's "Our New Errand Boy" (1905)), which, in turn, dates back to the earliest of the prank-punitive shot-scenes in the Lumière film "The Sprayer Sprayed" (1895). As with the chase films, these troublesome youths seem to have been an effective source for early developments in continuity editing and the story film. Such is the case here, where there's a fluid montage across seven shots, including a bit of crosscutting between the scene at the doorsteps, with the bench, and the scene with the bicycle. Rather sophisticated for a movie about a child running around painting glue in places to get adults stuck. The most ridiculous of which involves a couple of ladies affixed to a bench, whereupon they end up on their hands and knees to be served food and entertainment by the man of the house. Make of that what you will, especially considering that the film is usually ascribed to the world's first female filmmaker, Alice Guy. Regardless, true to the prank-punitive formula, the boy receives his comeuppance by himself becoming stuck to the bucket of glue.
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