Movies: George Albert Smith

George Smith's picture of the crowds out for a stroll on what I imagine is Brighton Pier....

Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosu...

Compilation of 7 short scenes: ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’; ‘Old Mother Hubbard’; ‘Little Miss Muffet’; ‘Goosey Gander’; ‘Jack and Jill’; ‘Old Woman in a Shoe’; ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’. Only the last one is known to have survived and to be available to wat...

King Edward VII's coronation ceremony....

Girl gives spoonful of milk to kitten. (Cut-in close-up) [The British Film Catalogue]...

It's one on those thingies you see at amusement parks. You get into a small gondola, the machine starts whirling about, and centrifugal force lifts the gondolas up in the air....

A man shaves, back to the camera, face reflected in a mirror....

An old spinster receives an unexpected Valentine's letter....

The first successful motion picture in natural color, filmed with Kinemacolor. It is an 8 minute short film directed by George Albert Smith of Brighton, showing people doing everyday activities. It is ranked of high historical importance. Kinemacolor...

A simple scene of two rather flamboyantly-dressed Edwardian children attempting to feed a spoonful of medicine to a sick kitten. The film is important for being one of the earliest films to cut to a close-up, then back again to the same medium shot a...

A boy releases a mouse and frightens a model....

Mary Jane tries to light the oven. When she's unsuccessful, she plays around, getting black boot polish on her face. She mugs before a mirror. Then, it's back to work. When the stove still won't light, she pours in paraffin, winks at the camera, and ...

An adaptation of the folk tale....

George Albert Smith and Charles Urban snaffled the plum job of travelling to Italy to take a series of views of Italy for the Warwick Trading Company, including this one. The long panning shots of Pompeii linger respectfully, as a tourist would, befo...

A bracing fight scene...

In front of a flour mill, two men fight. One is the miller, and he's swinging a bag of flour in the scuffle. The other is a chimney sweep, and he's swinging what may be a bag of flour, but when it breaks open, it's clearly something else. Well into t...

A view taken from Brighton beach on the Channel coast of the transit of Magnus Volk’s amazing seagoing electric railway, long celebrated as one of the world’s more bizarre railway experiments. All aboard for “A Sea Voyage on Wheels!"...

Satan conjures a vision of a girl, for whom an old man signs a pact and is made young. This is a lost film from George Albert Smith...

Man paints 'This house to let' and then the film is reversed....

The ghost of a man's twin shows him a vision of how he was killed in a duel....