Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

zpzjones My interest in this film lies not in it's comedic message or editing construct. My interest is who is in the film. Because the film is preserved in such a great state of clarity, faces can be recognized. No need for me to go over what the film's rundown as others have given a synopsis. I'll list the personalities appearing uncredited and in order of appearance. Edwin Porter the director doesn't always keep the ladies in numerical order. The ladies show great spirit coming out to do the film especially in heavy ankle length dresses and heeled shoes. Needless to say Fay Templeton, who is always last, ends up the victor and wins her man (Eddie Foy Sr. in disguise).*French Nobleman: Eddie Foy Sr.BRIDGE scene (in order of appearance): *1.Ethel Barrymore *2.Maude Adams *3.Eleanor Roosevelt *4. ? *5.Mrs. Fiske *6.? *7.Rose Coghlan *8.Fay Templeton________SAND DUNES or CLIFF scene (in order of appearance): *1. Ethel Barrymore *2. Maude Adams *3. Eleanor Roosevelt *4. ? *5. Mrs. Fiske *6. ? *7. May Robson *8. ? *9. Lillian Russell *10. Rose Coghlan *11. Fay Templeton___________BUSHES scene (in order of appearance): *1. Ethel Barrymore *2. Maude Adams *3. Eleanor Roosevelt *4. ? *5. Mrs. Fiske *6. ? *7. May Robson *8. ? *9. Lillian Russell *10. Rose Coghlan *11. Fay Templeton___________FENCE scene (in order of appearance): *1. Ethel Barrymore *2. Maude Adams *3. Eleanor Roosevelt *4. Rose Coghlan *5. ? *6. Mrs. Fiske *7. ? *8. May Robson *9. ? *10. Lillian Russell *11. Fay Templeton___________JUMP OVER LOG scene (in order of appearance): *1. Ethel Barrymore *2. Maude Adams *3. Eleanor Roosevelt *4. ? *5. Mrs. Fiske *6. ? *7. May Robson *8. ? *9. Lillian Russell *10. Rose Coghlan *11. Fay Templeton

Cineanalyst This Edison Company chase film with an overly long title is a plagiarized remake of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company's (AM&B) "Personal", which was made and released earlier the same year. In fact, AM&B unsuccessfully sued Edison over it. Such plagiarism was rampant in early cinema; every distributor did it. For foreign films especially, they generally didn't even bother remaking it, but, instead, simply duped the prints and sold them as their own. The most famous example of this is probably the American distribution of Georges Méliès's "Le voyage dans la lune" (A Trip to the Moon) (1902). American film innovators like Edwin S. Porter, the filmmaker of this remake, essentially learned film technique and were encouraged to produce more complicated story films through the process of duping and remaking the then more advanced films of Europeans like Méliès and G.A. Smith.According to Charles Musser (using both his "Before the Nickelodeon" and "The Emergence of Cinema" as sources), the Edison remake probably sold better than the original "Personal". The remake undermined AM&B's distribution practice of initially exhibiting their films to licensed theatres on the vaudeville market while withholding the pictures up to several months before selling them to everyone else. This system allowed Edison's remake to go to the open market before AM&B's original. After the failed lawsuit, AM&B started selling their films soon after production. (By the way, the reason the lawsuit was ruled in favor of Edison was that AM&B had failed to copyright "Personal" as a dramatic work, in addition to their copyrighting the film as a photograph.) Back then, cinema was still a rather small industry and a new one for which laws were being created and adjusted. Some numbers will give an indication of the size of the movie industry. In the lawsuit, AM&B claimed damages of $3,000. This Edison film was the company's biggest hit of the year, for which they sold 71 prints in six months and 85 complete prints total in 1904-1905 (Musser).Although it's near identical to "Personal", there are some differences between the two films, although I had to look closely at the two to see them (thanks to a handy dual purpose VCR and DVD player). AM&B's film consists of 10 shots and Edison's film consists of nine plus an expositional title card at the beginning. Additionally, "Personal" features nine women pursing the French nobleman (actually, I counted 10 during the scenes at Grant's Tomb, but one of them apparently gave up after that). Porter one-upped the original, with 11 women (although shot 5 appears to discontinuously include only 8 of them). Since both films show every character enter and exit the frame of each shot, the addition of two women is probably the main reason why the Edison remake is close to twice as long (675 feet compared to 371 feet).Because early chase comedies generally repeated the same set-up of the chase in each shot—just changing the obstacle that the pursued and pursuers faced—in addition to showing every character enter and exit the frame in every shot, the scenes were mostly interchangeable, almost self-contained units. Thus, in the Edison film, the characters scale over a steep embankment in shot five; while in 'Personal', the characters perform a nearly identical act, but do so in shot eight. Other near identical scenes include the initial meetings and beginning of the chase at Grant's Tomb, the crossing of a bridge, and the climbing of a fence. For the remake, Porter dropped some of the less interesting shots and added an opening medium shot of the French Nobleman checking for his ad in the personal column while standing in front of a mirror, and he changed the ending. Originally, the nobleman was forced to marry at gunpoint after being caught behind some bushes, which was probably more comedic and certainly more violent. Porter changed this to one of the women being willing to walk through a body of water to catch her soon-to-be-husband: sweeter, if not as funny.Next, Porter and Edison made a near-identical remake of AM&B's chase film "The Escaped Lunatic", re-titled "Maniac Chase".

MartinHafer For 1904, this is a very funny film, though the pacing and editing are lousy by standards of films made only a decade later. But, comparing this film to other films of its day, it is excellent and provides some cute laughs and the plot is very modern compared to other comedies of the day--most of which were filmed inside stuffy studios instead of in real outdoor settings. In fact, the basic idea is so good that it was resurrected two decades later in the fantastic Buster Keaton film, SEVEN CHANCES.A French nobleman places an ad in the paper for a wife. The instructions say for interested women to meet him in front of Grant's Tomb. However, ten women show up and things quickly get out of hand and so the man runs--at which point the women give chase!! Ultimately, one is able to win the man due to sheer determination! While a great idea, as I mentioned before the pacing and editing are not terribly great. This is definitely a product of the times, as setting up a camera and leaving it stationary through long shots was the norm--cameras did not usually follow the action. However, each time the frenzied groom ran across the camera, the scene continued until each and every one of the ten ladies passed as well!! Some of them were pretty slow considering the long dresses worn at the time and so scenes just dragged on and on--longer than they might have been handled when good editing became the norm. But, considering the time, it's still a wonderful film with a great plot.

Snow Leopard This short comedy is a pretty amusing version of the kind of idea that was pretty popular material for the one-reel features of the first decade of the 1900s. Besides this Edison feature, there was also a version by American Biograph and Mutoscope, titled "Personal", and a version by Lubin, titled "Meet Me At the Fountain". This Edison version, "How A French Nobleman …" seems to be the easiest to find, and it has been preserved in good condition.The simple story has the Frenchman getting overwhelmed by a group of female suitors outside Grant's Tomb, leading to an entertaining chase scene, which could serve as a scaled-down version of the hilarious sequence in Keaton's "Seven Chances". Though this one is not as inventive as Keaton's sequence (what could be?), it still holds up well enough to provide some entertaining moments.Much of the detail and backgrounds can still be seen clearly, and the photography is good for 1904. It's above average for its era and genre.