Onésime a un duel à l'américaine
About Onésime a un duel à l'américaine
In a private club, Onésime picks a fight with an American over a newspaper. The quarrel becomes a pistol duel with fire at will: on the field, in private houses, and in the middle of gatherings. The police arrest both men. In jail they make up, because the paper they were fighting over was yesterday's.
Cast & crew
More about Onésime a un duel à l'américaine
Jean Durand directed Ernest Bourbon as Onésime for Gaumont. Paul Castanet was the cameraman. Comptoir Ciné-Location distributed it. The negative is 142 meters, with 111 meters tinted. The Cinémathèque française dates the French release to August 26, 1912.
Themes
Making
Durand's Gaumont unit built the Onésime comedies around Bourbon, with Modot and the same troupe moving from one short to the next. This one is a chase built on a single bad idea: a duel that does not stop when the seconds do.
Look
Paul Castanet photographed it. Part of the 142-meter negative was tinted.
Preservation
A tinted viewing copy circulates from the Gaumont material. Wikimedia Commons holds a transfer.
Notes
- Édouard Grisollet plays the American. Paul Manson plays Sam Haller Dumpiey.
- Gaston Modot is Onésime's second, a man in the club, and a policeman.
- Jacques Beauvais plays a judge on the dueling ground. Berthe Dagmar is a woman in the invaded drawing room.
- Alternate titles include Onésime et le duel à l'américaine and Onésime se bat en duel.
- A DVD transfer of the short runs 4 minutes 50 seconds.
Scenes
- The duel leaves the field and keeps going through private rooms and public meetings.
- Locked up together, the two men discover the newspaper was a day old.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Onésime a un duel à l'américaine (1912).webm)
