Un drame au fond de la mer (1901) User Reviews

The detective has a brilliant plan!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 2 May 2021]

A rich family has their daughter kidnapped and held for ransom. A detective comes and dresses up like the father in order to meet with the kidnappers. His plan is brilliant and when he sees the little girl, the dick starts punching people!! Well, this plan was a bust and they tie him to a barrel of explosives and light it. Fortunately, the child rescues him and this leads to a chase. And, in the end, the two get away because apparently the crooks are even stupider!

For 1901, this simple film is actually rather complex and exciting. For today's audiences, it's not much but back in the day it surely got folks on the edge of their seats.

The Baseness Of The Human Heart

[boblipton · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

Two divers explore a sunken ship and come upon a small chest filled with treasure. They fight over it.

This very early short film from Pathe shows some interesting and well-thought-out techniques that didn't survive. The entire film is tinted blue to indicate it's at the bottom of the (blue) ocean. Although tinting or lighting continues to this day, blue tones were soon established as showing a night-time shot, and that is still in use.

Of more interest is the setting. There are a few corpses lying about. Was the film originally longer? Had they perished fighting each other over the money, or had the ship's sinking killed them?