The earliest film depictions of Saint Nicholas…
SANTA CLAUS(1898)
The first Santa Claus film. Directed by G.A. Smith
Posted at YouTube by BFI National Archive
Made in 1898, G.A. Smith’s Santa Claus is a film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for its period. It uses pioneering visual effects in its depiction of a visit from St. Nicholas. A former magic lanternist and hypnotist, Smith was one of the first British filmmakers to make extensive use of special effects to create fantastical scenes. It comes as little surprise that Smith corresponded with the French pioneer Georges Méliès at about this time, as the two men shared a common goal in terms of creating an authentic cinema of illusion. (Michael Brooke)
All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-national-archive
DREAMS OF TOYLAND(1908)
Director: Arthur Melbourne Cooper
Production Company: Alpha Trading Company
A boy and his mother walk along a high street and turn into a toy shop. The shopkeeper shows the boy various toys, including several dolls and a model car. Later, at home, the little boy is tucked up in bed by his mother and dreams that the toys come to life. The toys mill around in an open street setting until the car crashes and explodes. The little boy wakes, having fallen out of bed, and is comforted by his mother.
Arthur Melbourne Cooper’s animation showing a boy’s dream of his toys coming to life uses a live action framing device for the dream sequence which uses stop motion techniques to animate a child’s toys. Evidently he shot this on an outdoor stage, as the careful viewer might notice from the strange movement of the shadows as he reposition the dolls. This device, book-ending the animation with a live action story, had been used the previous year by W.R. Booth in his film Dreamland Adventures, which showed two children travelling to the North Pole with their toys grown to life size. Melbourne-Cooper made several other films using this form. –Bryony Dixon, Screen Online
A TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS (1909)
Director: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Henry B. Walthall, Marion Leonard, Gladys Egan, Mack Sennett (bartender)
Arthur Rogers had been in the worst of luck for some time. Honest and industrious by nature, he was in the depths of despair at the sight of the misery his little family of a wife and two small children were subjected to. They were, in fact, on the verge of starvation. With crushed spirit, he seeks solace in drink, and in a drunken condition feels his wife would be better off without him, so he leaves. Immediately after his departure a lawyer calls to apprise Mrs. Rogers that her aunt’s estate, long in litigation, has been settled, leaving her a moderate fortune. This indeed is pleasant news, but if it had only come before her husband’s rash act. However, they remove to new quarters, and the children, at least, are happy. It is the night before Christmas, and they are ready for bed. They want to wait for Santa Claus, but mamma tells them if they don’t go to sleep he will not come, for as there is no chimney he must come through the window. They tumble into bed and mamma goes to prepare to play Santa, how different would be the day if Arthur were home. Meanwhile, the children plan to catch Santa, and creeping from bed they place a tub in front of the window and tie a string to the window sash with the other end fastened to one of their feet, so that when the window is raised the string will awaken them and they will catch him for he will have fallen into the tub. The scheme works fine. The window is raised and a form is seen to enter the window, but the crash brings the mother, who sees there Arthur whom grim misfortune has forced to desperate deeds, and he has broken into the house not knowing its occupants. The wife realizes at once his sad plight, and with a hurried explanation, smuggles him into the side room, where he dons the Santa Claus suit she intended to wear, so when the children appear he pretends to be caught by their trap, and they are simply wild with delight. Source: Moving Picture World synopsis
Mack Sennett, who plays the bartender here, went to become the King of Comedy, launching the careers of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, W.C. Fields, Gloria Swanson, Mabel Normand, Bing Crosby, Chester Conklin, Marie Dressler, the Keystone Cops, for starters.
A CHRISTMAS PAST
This DVD from Kino Lorber, which is aired occasionally on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), presents more than two hours of silent screen holiday films by directors such as D.W. Griffith, Edwin S. Porter, Marion Leonard, Edith Peters, Charles Kent and others.
A collection of nine enchanting silent films, a Christmas Past offers a nostalgic peek into the Yuletide pleasures of the early 1900s. Evoking the Victorian charm of Currier and Ives prints, these picturesque comedies and tender dramas were produced as cinematic Christmas cards offered to moviegoers of the silent era. Included in this collection of archival rarities, most of which were produced at Thomas Edison’s studios, are the 1910 version of Dicken’s immortal a Christmas Carol, a heartwarming melodrama by D.W. Griffith (A Trap for Santa), as well as the first screen version of Clement Moore’s 1822 poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” the films have been digitally mastered from original 35mm elements and are accompanied by a wistful new score by Al Kryszak-performed on a variety of instruments including harp, violin and Christmas hand bells, which beautifully enhances the delicate shadings of each of these rare and fascinating treasures. Films: A Holiday Pageant at Home (1901); A Winter Straw Ride (1906); A Trap for Santa (1909); A Christmas Accident (1912); The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus (1914); Santa Claus Vs. Cupid (1915); Santa Claus (1925); A Christmas Carol (1910); The Night Before Christmas (1905).
Directors: Wallace McCutcheon, Charles M. Seay, Elsie MacLeod, Bannister Merwin, Herbert Yost, Marion Leonard, Edith Peters, Kenneth Lawlor, John Sturgeon, Gladys Egan, Henry B. Walthall, Charles Kent, Edwin S. Porter, Kathleen Coughlin, Ashley Miller, D.W. Griffith, Julian Reed, Bliss Milford, Richard Neill, J. Searle Dawley
Sean Axmaker offered this review at Amazon.com: Christmas doesn’t come any more old-fashioned than in this inspired collection of vintage holiday films from the silent era. Amidst the melodramas (D.W. Griffith’s 1909 “A Trap for Santa Claus”) and comedies (the “amateur” detective lark “The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus”) are some delicious Christmas treats. The 1925 “Santa Claus” combines magical images of Santa’s workshop elves with thrilling documentary footage of icy Alaskan landscapes and herds of wild arctic creatures, and the 1910 “A Christmas Carol” condenses the Dickens classic into 10 minutes by layering all the ghosts and memories into one brief but visually imaginative scene. The delightful “A Winter Straw Ride” (1906) transforms into a snowball free-for-all to celebrate the giddy antics of adults reverting to childhood innocence. Al Kryszak’s new, melancholy score for strings and harp is lovely for the most part but also, at times, distressingly busy with clattering and clanging passages amidst the cheer and holiday celebration of the films.
