The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew 1908

4.92

Based on Shakespeare's play. Petruchio courts the bad-tempered Katharina, and tries to change her aggressive behavior.

1908

Fantasmagorie

Fantasmagorie 1908

6.55

An animated film by French auteur Émile Cohl, one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn film animation. Drawing inspiration from J. Stuart Blackton and the Incoherents of club Hydropathes, the film, with all its wild transformations, sees our protagonist materialize a movie theatre, meet an elephant and escape from jail; A morphing, stream-of-consciousness delight.

1908

Grandmother's Tale and Child's Dream

Grandmother's Tale and Child's Dream 1908

5.60

The film begins with a grandmother reading a story to a small child before tucking them into bed. No sooner has the mite fallen asleep than they begin dreaming of an angel standing over their bed and whisking them off to a land of giant toys. The kid wanders around for a bit before being led away by a lady who takes them to a forest where other young ladies dressed as butterflies dance around a bit.

1908

The Tempest

The Tempest 1908

5.80

Prospero and his daughter Miranda must take refuge on an enchanted island. There Prospero, who himself has magical powers, releases the spirit Ariel from a spell, and also meets the savage Caliban. Then Prospero uses his powers to create a tempest that shipwrecks some of the persons who caused his exile.

1908

The Devil

The Devil 1908

1.50

Mack Sennett appears as a waiter in this film produced by the Biograph Company.

1908

Whimsical People

Whimsical People 1908

5.50

A moon-woman shakes a Pierot costume and manifests a Pierot clown. She does this four more until there are five Pierots crowded on the ledge of the moon. They fall to the earth and dance like tops turning one by one into Columbine maidens.

1908

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty 1908

4.40

Based on the story of "Sleeping Beauty" by Charles Perrault. Titles read: The Christening of the Princess; The Good Fairies Fatal Prediction; The Royal Edict; The Princess is Sixteen Years Old; Searching for the Princess; The Prediction Comes True; Thou Shalt Sleep for a Hundred Years; A Hundred Years later the Prince Charming Goes Hunting; Prince Charming Dismisses His Escort; The Castle of Sleep; The Guard's Hall; You Have Been a Long Time Coming, prince; The Wedding of the Sleeping Beauty to Prince Charming.

1908

The Stranglers

The Stranglers 1908

1

It depicts the notorious criminal incident that had occured in Rio de Janeiro.

1908

The Dream of an Opium Fiend

The Dream of an Opium Fiend 1908

5.39

The opium fiend is seen in a den, puffing on this terrible narcotic. He then falls fast asleep and dreams that he is at home with his wife. He asks for something to drink and he is given wine, which he does not care for, and he is finally given some bottled beer and a glass, but he complains that the glass is too small and he gets a very large sized glass receptacle, into which his wife and maid servant pour the contents of the bottle. As he is about to drink the glass passes from his hand mysteriously, sailing through the room and out of the window to the moon…

1908

A Tricky Painter’s Fate

A Tricky Painter’s Fate 1908

4.60

A painter boards a train and puts his paintings in the windows so that they look like passengers.

1908

The Heart of O Yama

The Heart of O Yama 1908

1.50

Pretty Miss Chrysanthemum has but little to say as to the disposal of her heart, at least, such is the custom in Japan. Her parents attend to that for her. However, pretty little O Yama Sum had a will of her own, and casting tradition to the winds, insisted upon making her own choice. The Grand Daimio has long loved the pretty O Yama and presents himself before her mother in quest of her hand. His offer is scorned by O Yama, for she loves another, a low-born but worthy warrior.

1908

Romance of a Jewess

Romance of a Jewess 1908

4.10

This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director's interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations in an immigrant Jewish family.

1908

Female Conscripts

Female Conscripts 1908

5.40

A man in civil clothes, and three men in army uniforms are inspecting seven women to be recruited.

1908

Pharmaceutical Hallucinations

Pharmaceutical Hallucinations 1908

5.20

There's a chemistry lab, in which one or two people ingest the wrong drug -- apparently -- and have a seriously bad trip. Then there's this wizard in his cave, and a fairy appears -- then there's this massive feast with about a dozen people. Then it ends.

1908

Le costume blanc

Le costume blanc 1908

4.50

The mishaps of a man who steps into the street wearing his brand-new white suit, and who instantly encounters every conceivable insult to his suit's integrity: a coalman bumps into him, a waiter spills food on him, a painter walks into him.

1908

The King's Messenger

The King's Messenger 1908

1.00

Mack Sennett appears as a soldier in this film produced by the Biograph Company.

1908

Evangeline

Evangeline 1908

1

About an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from the present day Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island - parts of an area also known as Acadia.

1908

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest 1908

5.50

A woodsman leaves a hut followed by a woman with their baby. Nearby some men chop down a tree. The baby is left outside the hut, but an eagle flies away with it.

1908

The Invisible Fluid

The Invisible Fluid 1908

5.00

Had the poor melancholy Dane, Hamlet, lived in this, the twentieth century, he would never have given voice to the remark, "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" No indeed! He would have procured some of the mysterious fluid compounded by an erudite scientist by which things animate and inanimate were rendered non est, for ten minutes at least, by simply spraying them with it. In an atomizer, he sends a quantity, accompanied by a letter, to his brother. In the hope of his putting it on the market. The brother regards it as a joke, and, while toying with the atomizer, accidentally sprays himself. Presto! he is gone, to the amazement of the messenger boy who has carried the package thither. The boy reads the letter, and at once sees the amount of fun he can get out of it, so he nips it.

1908