A Desperate Crime
About A Desperate Crime
Four masked men break into a farmhouse at night, tie the farmer and his wife, and stab the servants who try to help. They burn the farmer's feet to make him say where the money is. He will not. When they turn on his daughter, the wife tells them. As they leave she pulls the chief's mask off. She survives the fire, identifies him, and he is sentenced to death. After a night of dreams of the crime he is guillotined and put in an unmarked grave. Georges Méliès directed. The French title is Les Incendiaires.
Cast & crew
More about A Desperate Crime
Gaston Méliès wrote it. Georges produced. Manuel is the billed player. Star Film, 1906. The original length is given as 307 meters, about 15 minutes. Only an excerpt survives. It is also called Histoire d'un crime. Méliès made it while he was trying melodramas, after Pathé and Gaumont had taken the market his fantasy films had held.
Themes
Preservation
Partly lost. An excerpt survives, including the execution.
Notes
- The surviving piece is an excerpt. The guillotine is in that climax.
- The wife, not a detective, unmasks the chief.
- The feet are burned with embers from the farm fireplace.
- Wikidata lists 7 minutes, which matches the short excerpt rather than the 307-meter original.
Scenes
- They burn the farmer's feet. He still will not speak.
- The chief is taken to the guillotine.
