There's a burglar on the roof, lifting things through the skylight. Two women begin beating him with brooms, then a man comes and begins to attack him.
This Edison short is attributed to Blackton. There's another movie by the same title that was released by Vitagraph two months earlier. A common method of "remaking" a film before the production companies began placing their logos in the scenery, making them trademarked -- they would not be copyrightable until the laws were changed about a decade and a half later -- was to buy a print, then simply copy it.
This movie cries out for a chase sequence, but the immobile camera and lack of editing made that impossible at this stage of the movies. All action had to take place within the carefully delineated frame of the camera.
This Edison short is attributed to Blackton. There's another movie by the same title that was released by Vitagraph two months earlier. A common method of "remaking" a film before the production companies began placing their logos in the scenery, making them trademarked -- they would not be copyrightable until the laws were changed about a decade and a half later -- was to buy a print, then simply copy it.
This movie cries out for a chase sequence, but the immobile camera and lack of editing made that impossible at this stage of the movies. All action had to take place within the carefully delineated frame of the camera.