The People That Time Forgot!

32 Days of Halloween XVII, Day 2
The X-Rays & Blue Beard

We’ve featured a lot of silent films over the years. For cultural and historical reasons and also because it’s damn cool to be watching moving pictures from the end of the 19th century on a 21st century phone. I don’t normally pull them out this early but I ran across The X-Rays and I had to share it immediately. It’s by George Albert Smith from 1897.

I went with this version of it from YouTube because the thumbnail doesn’t ruin the madness of it. Be warned: this version has hideous music, so turn off your sound or mute the video or whatever. But avoid this music. It will sting.

I went down a brief rabbit hole to see if I could find the first known use of the jump cut in cinema. I’ve found it attributed in more than one place to our friend Georges Méliès, who is said to have discovered it by accident. Not an accident like a boulder falling on him but an accident where his camera jammed and the film showed time jumping as a result. The subject matter appears to be different depending on which version of the story you read. But nobody comes out and says a film, though I would guess it was whatever first film Méliès used it in.

Speaking of the man himself, here’s a much longer piece (nine minutes–sacre bleu!) telling the story of Blue Beard told mostly through crazy sets, early cinematic effects, and mime. This is from 1901.

Then for tonight’s feature…we have the 1977 adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The People That Time Forgot! Primitive man! Creatures of prehistory! David Prowse as The Executioner! It’s got everything! Enjoy. (If it starts autoplaying with sound, I do apologize. I have no idea how to make that stop. It’s 2024 FFS.)