The Diabolic Tenant
About The Diabolic Tenant
A bearded stranger with a valise takes an unfurnished room at a seaside boarding house and throws the paperhanger out the window. From the bag he produces a trunk, a fireplace, chairs, a piano, a dining table, a family, and a maid. When the janitor brings a bill, the tenant refuses it. The furniture gets up. He packs it back into the trunk, stuffs a policeman into the piano, and climbs out on a ladder. The janitors and another policeman beat a chest of drawers he left behind. It explodes and knocks them down.
Cast & crew
More about The Diabolic Tenant
Georges Méliès directed and plays the tenant. Star Film numbered it 1495–1501. English-speaking catalogues called it The Fiendish Tenant. André Méliès, his son, plays the child and also moves furniture from inside. François Lallement plays the young soldier, Charles Claudel the male janitor, and Octavie Huvier the female janitor. The idea expands Satan in Prison (1907).
Themes
Look
Méliès stages the room in long shot and cuts in medium shots when the janitor sees the dinner.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Pyrotechnics, stage machinery, and people hidden in the props do most of the work. The only film trick is the substitution splice.
- The action is mostly in long shot, with a few medium shots for the janitor's face.
- English release title: The Fiendish Tenant. French title: Le Locataire diabolique.
Scenes
- The tenant throws the paperhanger out of the window and unpacks a whole household.
- He leaves one chest of drawers. The janitors beat it until it blows up.
Influenced by
- Satan in Prison (1907)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheDevilishTenant)
