Movies: Edwin S. Porter

Scene I of the Buster Brown Series. The opening scene shows Bridget asleep at the kitchen-table, and Buster enters on tip-toe. After tying her apron over her head and to the back of the chair, he tries to reach a jar of jam on the top shelf of the pa...

The subject of this documentary is an orphan asylum for infants. The beginning portion includes the dining facilities for the children. A woman dresses as a nurse leads approximately two hundred small children into the eating area where they stand be...

Renactment of a skirmish that was likely to have occurred in the Russo-Japanese War. Opens with an establishing scene entitled "A Japanese outpost on the Yalu River," which shows the Japanese soldiers of the infantry outpost doing rifle drills and ra...

With a tree-lined river bank dominating the top and back of the frame, the Charles River flows toward a stationary camera. A flotilla of canoes passes by. Some have one occupant, some two, a few three or four. Some men wear ties, a few wear boaters. ...

The title of this early US film is something of a con really. Another rube couple had appeared in an entertaining movie set at Coney Island the previous year, and that film had been quite entertaining (for it's day) so any audience of the time would ...

A historical re-enactment of a naval battle in Chemulpo Bay off the coast of Korea during the Russo-Japanese war. Shows a Japanese ship damaging one Russian vessel and sinking another....

Buster Brown plays a practical joke on his mother, persuading her to to put her hands into a pan of lobsters, then puts a bunch of them in his father’s bed. They made two versions of this gag. One where a lobster is pinching his butt, the other not. ...

Men on the streetcar offer their seats to pretty women, but not to an ugly woman....

Panorama of Blackwell's Island...

A dissipated looking man is seated at a table with a decanter of whiskey and a glass beside him. A large revolver is on the opposite side of the table. The man is evidently an habitual drunkard and is lamenting his fate. He pours out a glass of whisk...

A true-crime short of a bank robbery and chase and capture....

1906 film by Edwin S. Porter, based on a popular song of the same title....

It seems Edison made a ton of these panorama films back in '03. They probably rented a boat for a couple of days, packed sandwiches and beer and floated around New York with the camera pointed at buildings. As panoramas go this one isn't as bad as so...

Zaza is a music hall star in Paris. She meets Bernard Dufrene and a flirtation develops into an intense love on her part. She is in despair when she discovers that he already has a wife and child. To visit them and announce herself as the mistress of...

Nell, the boss's daughter, uses Sherlock Holmes' detective work, to choose between the two suitors at her dad's broker's office....

Dreamland was a theme park at Coney Island, Brooklyn that opened in 1904. One of its major attractions was the stunt spectacular "Fighting the Flames," which simulated a major fire at a six-story hotel and featured a cast of 2000 including 120 firefi...

The severe cold of the winter of 1903-04 allowed the rapids of Niagara Falls to freeze over, allowing the brave tourists to enter the chasm and cross to the other side over the formed ice bridge....

An artist is painting a sunrise at sea. After a few finishing touches he stands back and admires the painting. The sun immediately commences to rise. From all appearances it becomes very warm as the sun rises, and the artist is seen to throw open the...

From behind a curtain three men appear on screen. The first wears a combination of tuxedo and kilt. The second wears a Scottish kilt and holds a spear and a shield. The third wears a military tunic and sword. All three attempt to dance a version of t...

Third part in Edison’s “Martinique” trilogy. It shows the shower of ashes and cinders falling upon the stricken city, the boiling water in the harbor, the air laden with smoke and ash dust, the destroyed buildings, the fallen lighthouse, and a great ...