Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence

1900 Comedy 1 minute Directed by James Bamforth

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About Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence

Two figures in long skirts, hats, and with umbrellas stand talking by a fence. Two men on the far side reach through and nail the skirts to the boards, then run. The pair try to leave and find they are pinned.

Cast & crew

More about Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence

Bamforth of Holmfirth made the gag. BFI Screenonline identifies it with the 1899 title Women's Rights, at 69 feet, and notes that the women are played by men. A Bamforth lantern set, Gossips and Eavesdroppers, shows the same pair discussing women's rights.

Themes

  • A conversation by a fence
  • Skirts nailed to the boards
  • Men playing the women
  • fence
  • skirts
  • nails
  • umbrellas
  • Bamforth
  • Holmfirth

Background

The lantern cards put the conversation on women's rights, four years before Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union.

Making

James Bamforth's firm had been making lantern slides in Holmfirth. This reel uses the same joke as one of those slide sets.

Look

Three daylight shots from nearly one camera position. The nail-down is shown from the men's side of the fence.

Preservation

Silent Era lists a surviving print. The BFI holds the 69-foot copy used on Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers.

Notes

  • Silent Era lists the film as Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence (1900) and credits production to James Bamforth.
  • BFI Screenonline files the same picture as Women's Rights (1899).
  • The print is three shots. The middle shot is meant to be the men's side of the fence, though the camera position barely changes.
  • IMDb notes that the 'ladies' are men.
  • The BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers includes it.

Scenes

  • The men reach under the fence and nail the hems down.
  • The two figures start to walk and are stuck.

Also available

  • DVD: Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers (BFI)