Paramount on Parade

In this comedy, a pair of ex-Marines team up and get involved in a nightclub. Trouble ensues when they both fall in love with a feisty woman and begin fighting over her.

Our Animal Neighbors!

Behind the scenes of a hit reality TV show, a jaded producer and a spurned beauty queen face off in mental mortal combat. One driven by cash rewards and ambition, the other clinging to her last shred of dignity. Only one can leave victorious.

The parents decided to send two twins, Honza, and Martin, on vacation to their grandfather.

A small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.

A boy is fishing in a stream when some others see an opportunity for mischief.

A blind man begging for change tries to outsmart a cop.

A hypnotist tricks his patients.

Cops chase a pair of burglars on the rooftops of the city.

An illusionist makes a woman disappear in thin air.

Gentlemen get into a misunderstanding over absinthe.

A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other.

A dancer personifying Winter, dances in the snow.

A landlady is taunted by neighborhood kids.

George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)

A turn-of-the-last-century hand-tinted short, which features two women, Miss Lally and Miss Julyett, dancing at a ball. By the legendary French filmmaker Alice Guy.

"Danse excentrique" (Gaumont #587) is part of the "Miss Lina Esbrard. Danseuse cosmopolite et serpentine" series of 4 films, and should not be confused with "Danse serpentine" (Gaumont #588, the only extant film in the series), "Danse fantaisiste" (Gaumont #589) or "La Gigue" (Gaumont #590).

A woman shows off her trained dogs.

A magician transforms a tiny dinner table into a full meal for a homeless man.

Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.