User Reviews

For 1899, this is an exceedingly primitive movie. The camera sits in one spot and the actors in it -- a man sitting, reading a newspaper and a young girl who plays a practical joke on him by tickling him in the back of the neck -- seem rather clueless as the man never bothers to look behind him, which would quickly reveal the source of his torment. At this stage, movie comedies often consisting of practical jokes, as they had since the Lumieres filmed L'AROSEUR S'ARROSE. This is still a 30-second effort. Longer works were only being essayed rarely at this point, particularly by Melies.

Nonetheless, the movie clearly shows the use of the 'rule of three' in comedy construction, as the little girl pulls her little joke twice to the same effect, and then there is a major pay off result on the third iteration. Not very interesting, but at least the makers understood this basic rule of comedy.

A predictable and not-very funny comedy from J. Stuart Blackton.

Little Mischief (1899)

This "comedy" from Edison probably won't make people laugh today but it's still a rather interesting little film. A father is sitting in a chair trying to read his newspaper when his young daughter starts rubbing the back of his neck with a brush. The father goes swatting at it thinking it's just a fly but he eventually falls out of his seat. At 25-seconds this film is pretty straight-forward and like I said, it's doubtful this will make anyone laugh today but it's fun to see what was considering a comedy back in 1899. Whoever is playing the little girl appears to be having the time of her life because it's obvious she's really cracking up each time the man tries to push the "fly" away. The guy playing the father is certainly over-the-top in his movements but apparently it was working on the kid.