| THE RUNAWAY GLOBE Early Italian comedy - The Runaway Globe. Lots of special effects and slapstick too. | ||
|---|---|---|
| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 5001 |
| Catalog #: | 494024 | |
| Clip Number: | 494024-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | UN 1 B (S) | |
| Timecode: | 01:36:18 - 01:43:05 | |
| Location: | Italy | |
| Year Shot: | 1908 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | No | |
| Color: | No | |
| Headings: | ENTERTAINMENT/FICTION FILMS: Comedy ENTERTAINMENT/FICTION FILMS: Trick/Special Effect LOCATIONS/EUROPE: Italy SPECIAL EFFECTS: Camera Tricks | |
| Description: | THE RUNAWAY GLOBE Early Italian comedy - The Runaway Globe. Lots of special effects and slapstick too. Wonderful 1908 short, part slapstick comedy and part trick film: A restaurant wants to install a large globe on their roof, but the project is full of mishaps and disasters, the giant globe gets away, wreaks havoc in the town and is pursued by an angry crowd. Then there's a truly bizarre finale! Starts with a scene of the restaurateur consulting with an artist about the symbol (and name?) to use for his (new?) restaurant. The artist first draws a sketch of a horse but the restaurateur emphatically rejects it. Then he snatches up a small globe which was handily lying nearby and expounds upon this new idea; as they kneel on the floor talking a woman comes in and upsets an easel which crashes down on them; they all go running out. The globe has been created and is brought on a cart to the restaurant by the artist and 4 other workers; the wife of the owner greets them and with much gesticulation and pointing explains that they want the globe to be put up on the roof. This of course is the occasion for some slapstick gags - - they've just hoisted it up to the top of a ladder when the owner hurries out and knocks it (and everyone else) down. When they try to roll it up the stairs it rolls back downstairs over them, but they try again and get it up on the roof. Just then a very WEIRD thing happens - - CU of the "Sun" - -a cut-out sun with wavy rays and, sticking out the middle of it, a guy's face made up with exaggerated eyebrows and lips. The "Sun" talks (but there's no sound, of course), twists his face around and then presses his lips together and sprays/spits water out of his mouth. Cut to the group on the roof; somehow what looks not like water or spit but more like a bunch of powder falls on them with great force and people and globe all fall through the roof!. Shots of lover's meeting, tea party and house painter as the globe goes crashing down on them, through two more ceilings, to the ground floor - -all the people crash through as well, and set off on a chase after the runaway globe which has bounced out of the bulding and down the street. The globe and the crowd in pursuit keep knocking down more and more people who all join the chase. They chase it down the street through a tunnel across a park....(dog joins in) and when it magically bounds across some water they jump in after it. Now the weird Sun man makes another appearance - -he sucks in his cheeks and - - the globe is sucked right up into the air, taking along a man who has just caught it. The rest of the crowd show up but the globe has gone. Now the globe (with the man clutching onto it) goes floating past a cloud backdrop. CU the Sun watches in consternation as the (now tiny looking) globe with its 'passenger' sort of bounces at him and disappears into his EYE!!! He looks greatly pained and blinks his eye a lot ...then finally he spits the guy and the globe out! Cut to shot of globe floating down down past the 'clouds' (there's another weird aspect - -the globe and the man are now sort of transparent! ) Cut to MLS globe lands back by the restaurant again! The crowd start to roll it away. At the end there's a very brief extra trick shot - -reverse of the globe and the people crashing down through ceiling; instead they go whooshing up. | |
WPA FILM LIBRARY
