Zigoto Drives a Locomotive (1912) User Reviews

Well, He Tries

[boblipton · 4/10 · 13 December 2020]

When all the people who know anything about trains go on strike, the station master recruits Zigoto, aka Lucien Bataille to run a locomotive. He runs it right off the rails, onto the road, through a house, and before he's done....

It's a comedy of destruction. When Americans think of slapstick, they think of Mack Sennett and people falling down. European slapstick, and Jean Durand's unit at Gaumont wasn't happy until someone destroyed a town. They pretty much do so here!

Zigoto Drives a Locomotive review

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 26 June 2020]

Yet another Jean Durand comedy in which a number of sets are destroyed - this time by a runaway train, which is at least a departure from the norm. But Durand was essentially remaking the same film over and over, which means that each successive film was less funny than its predecessor. Zigoto's frantic mugging is also the kind of comic act that just isn't funny today.

pumping a bit of life into the established Durand formula

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 5 May 2013]

In the 1910s, director Jean Durand seemed to have made a bazillion films in which a chase or out of control object was the theme. It could be escaped lions, an angry man or, in this case, a train that careens through the streets of a small town. In each instance, folks who are minding their own business are knocked down and walls are smashed--all VERY MUCH what you'd expect in the films. However, at least "Zigoto Drives a Locomotive" uses a train for this very slow speed romp. So, even if it's very familiar, just seeing a small train engine going up and down the streets in this French town is rather impressive and amusing. I am not sure quite how Durand did it (I suspect the train was fake--though it sure looked real) and the novelty made this one well worth seeing.