The Artist and the Dummy
About The Artist and the Dummy
An artist sets a mannequin on a stand to paint from. His manservant and a woman visitor plan a joke. She takes the mannequin's place and hits the artist with a broom. He swings back. She has already changed places with the dummy. The manservant laughs.
Cast & crew
More about The Artist and the Dummy
Georges Méliès directed and plays the artist. Star Film sold it in 1900 as number 284. The French title is L'Artiste et le mannequin. A surviving copy runs 1 minute 10 seconds. Méliès later burned his original negatives. This one was treated as lost until 2007, when the Filmoteca de Catalunya identified a print and restored it.
Themes
Making
Méliès plays the painter who gets hit. The gag is one substitution: woman for dummy, then dummy for woman.
Preservation
Treated as lost until 2007, when the Filmoteca de Catalunya identified a print and restored it.
Notes
- The weapon is a broom.
- The manservant is in on the switch.
- Star Film advertised it as a scène comique.
- The Filmoteca de Catalunya restoration dates from 2007.
Scenes
- The woman takes the mannequin's place on the stand.
- She hits him with the broom and is gone before he hits back.
Also available
- Filmoteca de Catalunya
- Wikimedia Commons (L'Artiste et le Mannequin.webm)
