Inexhaustible Cab
Rating
Title
Inexhaustible Cab
Creator
Lubin Manufacturing Company
Description
This one-shot comedy was taken on a city street with a white shuttered , two-story building in the background , a fire-plug and police call-box on the corner in mid-ground , and a horse-drawn wagon parked at the curb around the corner. As passersby cross in the street , a cab pulled by two white horses enters from screen-right , and a Clown gets out. In a reversal of the familiar circus trick , the Clown pulls people off the street and stuffs an impossible number into the cab. A woman with an infant is pushed in and the youngster tossed on top. He finally slaps one woman on the behind with a flat board to drive her in. The trick effect is smoothly accomplished through the stop-camera technique discernible by the slight up and down rocking of the carriage on its springs as a result of people entering and exiting between each pause in filming. Though an embossed Lubin logo heads the print , the February , 1903 Edison catalog also lists a similar film called Inexhaustible Cab with this description : A cab is driven up to a palatial mansion after being hailed by a gentleman who wishes to have a score of people conveyed to another part of the city. Immediately upon the stopping of the cab a clown jumps out. A satisfactory agreement is effected between the clown and the gentleman... [a woman] who is carrying a child...After caressing it for a short time he tosses it on top of the cab. [He]...picks up a board.... (emphases added)(6)While certain elements in the print match the Edison description , many are different : No gentleman hails the cab to begin the action ; no group is waiting when it arrives ; the location of a busy street corner is not 'a palatial mansion ', but the 'prominent thoroughfare ' of the 1902 Lubin catalog account (7) These important differences suggest there were two similar but distinct films with the same title. Unfortunately , the SWFVA print stops shortly before the end , neither showing the Clown's trick disappearance (Lubin description) nor the cab simply driving away (Edison version). A British release of the same title and basic description was produced by George A. Smith in 1899. (Gifford , 00237). Still , the marked discrepancies between the American producers ' descriptions lends weight to the possibility of at least one additional variation , whether by Lubin or Edison(8). (Worland , 1995 : http://www.fiafnet.org/pdf/uk/fiaf51.pdf)
Contributors
Worland, Rick
Original Date
1901
Original Format
35 mm nitrate film
Related Resources
Worland , R. 1995. The Sulphur Springs , Texas early films discovery. Journal of Film Preservation 51 : 54-64. http://www.fiafnet.org/pdf/uk/fiaf51.pdf (Note : go to page 56 in the.pdf file)
Item Number
SSM19
Type
Video
Digitization Date
Digitized for web: 2011
Digital Format
TRT 00:00:56.72; Archival File: Video: DV-NTSC, 640 x 480; Streaming File: Presented in Vimeo as 480 x 360
Digitization Process
Files were ripped from source DVD to create NTSC .mov master file. Utilized reverse-telecine using standard 2s3w pattern to create a 640x480, 23.98fps, square pixel master file. Uploaded .mp4 derivative to Vimeo.
Web Page
https://sites.smu.edu/cdm/cul/ssm/stream/SSM19_Stream.html
Related file(s)
ssm19_cab_up.mp4
Digital Collection
Sulphur Springs Collection of Pre-Nickelodeon Films
Part of
Sulphur Springs
Library
G . William Jones Film and Video Collection ; Hamon Arts Library
Publisher
Central University Libraries , Southern Methodist University
Rights
Please cite the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, Southern Methodist University when using this file. For more information contact filmarchive@smu.edu.
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