A Personal History of British Comedy
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- DirectorRobert W. PaulOne of the prettiest pictures of child life we have yet offered. Two pretty children are seated in their high chairs playing "Tea Party" with their dishes arranged about them. They become engaged in a dispute over the possession of a piece of cake and one of them cries, giving the most perfect and child-like facial expressions we have yet had the pleasure of seeing.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsLaura BayleyTom GreenA man and woman are flirting when a professor turns on an X-ray machine, revealing their insides. After turning it off again the two have a dispute and break up.
- DirectorRobert W. PaulA soldier and a serving-girl are courting on a bench. A fat old lady sits on the bench, interrupting them.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsLaura BayleyGeorge Albert SmithA humorous subject intended to be run as a part of a railroad scene during the period in which the train is passing through a tunnel.
- DirectorCecil M. HepworthStarsCecil M. HepworthHenry LawleyAs two couples enjoy their evening promenade in a nice but rickety open motor car, without notice, an explosion blows the vehicle to smithereens.
- DirectorJames WilliamsonStarsSam DaltonA man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.
- DirectorWalter R. BoothA Swiss tourist knocks the head off a negro waiter.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsLaura BayleySmith casts his wife as a sluttish housewife who is mutilated by lighting her oven with paraffin.
- DirectorJames WilliamsonThe adventures of an inattentive man. He's at his kitchen table, reading. A woman brings his hat and points to the clock. He continues reading and pours coffee into his hat. He leaves, still reading, trips over a servant who's on her hands and knees cleaning the walk. He walks through jump-roping girls, runs into a mule, walks into the only other person on an empty street, and then walks into the path of a steamroller. Two cyclists approach his flattened body. Out come their air pumps, and soon our genial hero has set off again, nose in his book.
- DirectorJames WilliamsonStarsJames WilliamsonTom WilliamsonA mischievous errand boy, sent out on a delivery, causes havoc in the streets of Hove. When he arrives back at the shop, he finds all his furious victims are already there complaining to the grocer -- and the chase is on!
- DirectorWalter R. BoothA British trick film in which a motorist ends up driving around the rings of Saturn.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonStarsThurston HarrisGertie PotterAs an older man and a youth are eating at the table, the older man decides to amuse himself by using pepper to make the boy sneeze. Later, the boy retaliates by sneaking into the older man's room and putting pepper in his handkerchief, hairbrush, and clothing. But things quickly get out of hand when the sneezing that results begins to disrupt the whole town.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonStarsHay PlumbAlma TaylorChrissie WhiteTilly the Tomboy and her pseudo-angelic friend are at it again. This time, they visit a bedridden woman, steal a truck and turn a bakery upside down in their pursuit of mischief.
- DirectorHay PlumbStarsJack HulcupChrissie WhiteRuby BelascoA baby, the beneficiary of a will, is kidnapped, thrown through a window, trampled on, and finally rushed to the hospital to be re-inflated.
- DirectorLaurence TrimbleStarsFlorence TurnerTom PowersDaisy and her husband both go in for a face-pulling contest, but when the big day comes she is unable to attend the competition, and her husband wins instead. When the next opportunity comes around, she is determined to win -- but gets a little over-enthusiastic on the way to the contest and finds herself in trouble! She is most ungrateful for her rescue; fate, however, catches up with her that night...
- DirectorAdrian BrunelStarsAdrian BrunelT.L. RichVivian Van DammA spoof travelogue of an expedition by three explorers, confusing London and New York with Papua, sending up film effects, censorship and a profusion of other cinema-related targets.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJameson ThomasLillian Hall-DavisGordon HarkerAfter his daughter weds, a middle-aged widower with a profitable farm decides to remarry, but finds choosing a suitable mate a problematic process.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAlfred HitchcockAnny OndraAlfred Hitchcock makes an experiment in this short film where he uses the sound device for the first time in a motion picture of his own. This is a sound test where the master of suspense and actress Anny Ondra have some humored dialogues, just checking the sound quality designed for Hitchcock's first talkie picture, the classic Blackmail (1929).
- DirectorAndré CharlotJack HulbertPaul MurrayStarsTommy HandleyGordon BeggTeddy BrownA series of nineteen musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself). There are two "running gags" which connect the sketches. In one, an actor wants to perform Shakespeare, but he is continually denied air-time. The other gag has an inventor trying to view the broadcast on television. Four of the sketches are in color (in shades of yellow and brown only).
- DirectorMaurice ElveyStarsGracie FieldsIan HunterFlorence DesmondA British soldier fights in WWI, gets wounded, and fakes his death so his girlfriend can move on. Years later, healed, he seeks her out while she still grieves his supposed demise. Wartime romance, sacrifice, reunion after trauma.
- DirectorAlbert de CourvilleStarsJessie MatthewsOwen NaresCarol GoodnerA businessman's daughter runs away from an arranged marriage, only to find herself penniless and suspected of theft after she becomes the victim of a bag thief in the train. When she refuses to tell him who she really is, her accuser decides to take her home where he can keep an eye on her until 12 o'clock the next day, the time at which she has calculated that it will be safe to tell the truth! But when his fiancée arrives unexpectedly and then his 'guest' is mistaken for her, it all gets rather embarrassing...
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsCharles LaughtonRobert DonatFranklin DyallKing Henry VIII marries five more times after his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon.
- DirectorVictor SavilleStarsJessie MatthewsSonnie HaleBetty BalfourHarriet Green, a beloved and radiant music hall star of the Edwardian era, has a guilty secret: She has a baby daughter, born out of wedlock. Harriet leaves her public and flees to South Africa to raise her daughter quietly. The years pass, and now her daughter, Harriet Hawkes, returns to London as a young show-biz hopeful. Tommy, a wily publicity man, knowing that young Harriet is a dead ringer for her famous mother, convinces a theater producer to star her in a new revue as none other than the original Harriet Green, miraculously untouched by old age. The ruse works too well: Now the public believes Harriet is a well-preserved 60-year-old and Tommy is her son. The deception is more than merely inconvenient, because now Harriet and Tommy have secretly fallen in love.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsRobert DonatJean ParkerEugene PalletteA haunted Scottish castle is dismantled and transported to Florida, bringing the family ghost along with it.
- DirectorMonty BanksStarsGeorge FormbyFlorence DesmondGus McNaughtonA fortune in gems is hidden in one of six chairs, and it's up to the prospective heir to find it.