Sandow (1896) User Reviews

Film's first star performer.

[ronin-88 · 5/10 · 13 March 2022]

Sandow is a series of three 1894 silent short actuality films directed by William K. L. Dickson for Edison Studios. The films show Sandow flexing his muscles in his underwear. At the time, Eugen Sandow was a star with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr's shows. He was as well known for his appearance as for his feats of strength.

After some experimental films including the "Athlete with Wand" film shot earlier in 1894 at Edison's Black Maria Studios, this film was intended for distribution for paying audiences. Sandow was the first known 'star' to appear in a film. The audiences were likely fascinated by the possibility of viewing details of human movement as much as they were by Sandow's appealing appearance.

As stated, three films were shot for Edison by WKL Dickson, Sandow No. 1, Sandow No. 2, and Sandow No. 3. Later, in 1896, after Dickson had co-founded Biograph Studios, he shot a remake simply titled "Sandow." So, with these films, we have the first movie star and the first set of sequels featuring said star. We also have reboot from a competing studio.

The Strong Man

[Michael_Elliott · 18 May 2015]

Sandow (1896)

This 38-second Edison short was filmed in the now historic West Orange, NJ and features strong man Eugen Sandow doing the opening to his performance where he shows off his muscles. Apparently this here was the first "performer" to go to the Edison studios and be filmed for a movie and it's clear that the strong man was extremely popular since the studio only had to put his last name as the title. There's certainly nothing here that would make current film fans take notice but for film buffs the simple historic nature of the movie makes it worth watching. Again, we simply see Sandow flexing for a few dozen seconds but it's the history behind it that makes it so fascinating to watch today.

Strong-man Eugen at it again

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 12 October 2013]

Eugen Sandow was a bit of a very early movie star and here we see why. Or don't. I'm not sure. Obviously people were interested in his strength and so they sucked up his films even if he was basically doing nothing than posing and flexing his muscles. That's exactly what he does here. For twenty seconds. As always, he wears nothing but a slip and a mustache and impresses everybody with his toned body. Arnold Schwarzenegger of the 19th century, although the Austrian is probably the more gifted actor. A weird statement, I know. Anyway, I'm not wowed by this film at all, just like with most others by Sandow and can't really recommend it.

Snipet of Film Captures Immortal for Posterity

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 9 October 2018]

WE'VE RATED THIS a full 10 on the existing scale. This was not because of any compelling writing, direction, cinematography or any other of these topics. What is accomplished here in less than a minute is preserving the imagery of one Prussian born Stage Strongman & Vaudevillian, Frederick Mueller by name. He was to gain World-wide fame and fortune as Eugen Sandow.

IT WAS HIS de-emphasizing the actual Strongman Stunts in favor of the presentation of Physique posing that put him on the theatrical worls's map. He is also credited with giving Florenz Ziegfeld his big break as a theatrical impresario. This story of their collaborative effort as a sideshow attraction at the World Columbian Exposition (World's Fare) in Chicago is told in the film, THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (MGM, 1936). In the movie , Ziegfeld was portrayed by William Powell and Sandow by Nat Pendelton.

BUT THAT WAS fiction and this little tiny, 38 seconds of film has immortalized the real man for us today and for all time. It is the genius or maybr just plain, old-fashioned dumb luck by the filming studio to have done this production.

Biograph's Version of "Sandow"

[Tornado_Sam · 20 December 2018]

Eugen Sandow, apparently the strongest man in the world at that time, had already been filmed three times in 1894 as the first vaudeville sensation to appear in a series of performance movies directed by W. K. L. Dickson for the Edison Manufacturing Company. The first film, originally titled "Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope" had become so popular that the original negatives wore out from having too many copies made from them, thus making it impossible to continue distribution. As a result, Edison was then forced, under the demands for prints that had to be met, to remake the film twice, resulting in the two shorts that are now known as "Sandow, No. 2" and "Sandow, No. 3". (Presumably, these two movies were also the cause for the re-titling of the first film to "Sandow, No. 1"). From then on, Sandow would also become the star of several other 'stunt' movies made from 1900-1901, including "Sandow's Roman Horse Lift" and "Sandow's Record Lift".

This Biograph film from 1896, which just goes under the title of "Sandow", is basically the same as the trilogy produced by the Edison company, only with a different camera placement and with some slight varations to the routine. This time, the single shot flick is not composed of a medium closeup as in the Edison films, but rather from more of a audience view, as if you were up close to the stage watching the act. Sandow is the center of attention here, as, like in the Edison version, he poses and flexes showing off his body to impress the audiences. The only main way the routine differs from the Edison film(s) is the astonishing flip he turns at the end before standing in a stand-still position for the last several seconds. (Keeping that flip in mind, it's no wonder the camera was positioned farther away; to perform such a stunt in medium closeup would have seemed tight and possibly dangerous to the camera and the cameraman). Unfortunately, due to the farther away camera placement there isn't as much awe in glimpsing Sandow's muscles since they are not seen at such a close standpoint, making the version more amateur in this regard.

Funnily enough, Biograph (who must have noticed the popularity the Edison company was getting and decided to steal it by creating this rip-off) also had the exact same problem that their competition had already had: the wearing out of the original negatives. This led to two more remakes of the remake they had already produced, which were also titled "Sandow No. 2" and "Sandow No. 3" in accordance with Edison's series. Thus, by keeping in mind how popular these Sandow movies were, there's no doubt Biograph's and Edison's remakes should be more remembered as some of the first movie remakes in film history.