Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]You know what? I hate to admit it, but I never thought of Short Films as making viable reviews, nor did I think much about them in general! I mean their so short, and I had this general pre-conception that for a movie to be of a certain length that it absolutely had to be no less then an hour and a half long... I mean that is how most modern movies are right?
Boy was I wrong about the short film! You see, a few years ago I got real interested in the history of movies and the cinema, and got to wondering what the first recorded images for TV was, which I was able to check out... (If you get a chance, and you are as big of a history/TV/movie fan as I am, then you might find it to be rather interesting), after I found that though, I decided to try and find the first recorded movie ever... And you know what? When I found it, I felt a little bit honored to be able to say that I have seen the first movie ever made!
What was that movie you ask? Well it was not a movie in the standard sense of the word (i,e. It was more of a 5 or 6 second short scene...) But never the less I would say that it fits the definition of a movie no matter how short it is... That movie is called, 'The Roundhay Garden Scene' and it was just a scene that was filmed on one of the first cameras ever made in a backyard (again, if you are a fan of cinema and history, then I do think you will find this one to be interesting as well!)
Now going in to the more traditional sense of the short film, I found that I really enjoyed them, and have seen some newer ones as well as some of the significantly older ones... And speaking of the older ones, the reason why those can be great, is that they give a sort of direct look at the vision that created some truly forgotten classics and get some idea of what these people who made films 50 or a hundred years ago were all about!
And you know what? That is one of the reasons why I really enjoyed Frankenstein (1910):
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Thomas Edison's production company produced the first ever Frankenstein movie![/caption]Written & Directed by: J. Searle Dawley (Rescued From An Eagles Nest). Starring: Augustus Phillips (In The Garden), Charles Ogle (Michael Strogoff) & Mary Fuller (The House Cards).
Now this is an interest Silent Short Film that leads the viewer on the life of a young genius by the name of, 'Frankenstein' (Phillips), as he goes through College, discovers the secrets of life and death through the birth of his Monster, and how this monster terrorizes Frankenstein and the woman he loves, all the way up to the Monsters death!
In the end this movie is very short and that really is about the some total of it, but it is a great odyssey, and it shows how even the most evil of circumstances and people can be overcome when love is their to conquer all evil!
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Frankenstein's monster (Charles Ogle) as he realizes the horror of who he is![/caption]I also liked that this is strictly speaking some what of a different interpretation of Shelley's original novel, and all of the Frankenstein movies that have come after this one, in that in most works involving Frankenstein (rather they are written or on screen) usually have Frankenstein coming to life through strong electrical charges from lightening in a storm... But in this it actually had to do with Frankenstein creating his monster through some sort of steam based solution in a tub!
In the end, this movie is an awful lot of fun, and considering the fact that this movie is over 100 years old, it has passed the test of time pretty decently, and if you like these ancient classics, then you might want to try this one out, it is a fun one!
http://youtu.be/2pc4XnkePM4
