Maniac Chase
About Maniac Chase
A man dressed as Napoleon fights three nurses, breaks the bars of his cell, and climbs out. They chase him over a log bridge, a rolling barrel, a tree, a haystack, a roof, and a road. He is back at the table in the cell when they return, as if the chase had not happened.
Cast & crew
More about Maniac Chase
Edwin S. Porter directed this Edison short, released on 7 October 1904. It copies Wallace McCutcheon’s Biograph film The Escaped Lunatic (late 1903 / early 1904). Edison also remade Biograph’s Personal that autumn as How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns.
Themes
Making
Porter restaged McCutcheon’s shots rather than duping the Biograph negative, after copyright practice had tightened.
Technique
The tree climb is reverse motion. The chase is a string of separate outdoor setups, the way The Escaped Lunatic had been built.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The prisoner wears a Napoleon costume.
- One shot, of the climb in a tree, is printed in reverse.
- The nurses find him seated again, which leaves the chase looking imagined.
- It is a silent comedy, not a drama, despite some later genre tags.
Scenes
- He breaks the window bars and drops out of the cell.
- The tree shot runs backward.
- The nurses return and he is at the table.
Influenced by
- The Escaped Lunatic (1904), Wallace McCutcheon’s Biograph film
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheManiacChase1904)
