Movielogr

Rating: 8 stars

Tags

youtube silent black and white robbery chase police rooftop train escape British

All movies seen on 11/30/2018

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A Daring Daylight Burglary (1903)

Directed by Frank S. Mottershaw

Action | Crime | Short

Overview

A thief jumps a fence and removes the shutter from a house. He enters, but a lad who’s witnessed the crime runs off to hail the coppers. The first officer on the scene climbs the fence, enters the house, and is soon fighting with the thief on the roof. Falling from the roof, the officer is injured and requires an ambulance. Meanwhile, the thief flees, pursued by more men in blue.

Length 4 minutes

Actors

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Said to have inspired Porter’s THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and it’s easy to see that it probably did. The version I watched had no musical accompaniment and it was still pretty engaging. Not sure but seems likely this was the first crime story captured on film?

I love the intercut scene on the rooftop where the robber and policeman wrestle and the robber throws a dummy off the roof. A very similar scene happens in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY where the robbers beat the engineer on top of the train and then chuck a dummy version of him off.

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