The Gallants of the Park
About The Gallants of the Park
In a village, a young man in a ridiculous outfit has a scrivener write a marriage notice. The heir of the Pruna house will meet candidates at the Chicha-Chic farm in Horta, a laurel branch in his buttonhole. Women read the notice and crowd his gate. He waits with an oversized branch, then runs, climbs a wall, steals a bicycle, falls, and reaches a fountain with the women still behind him. The last seconds of the surviving print are gone.
Cast & crew
More about The Gallants of the Park
Segundo de Chomón directed and photographed it in Barcelona in 1904 and released it in Spain the same year. The English title on the filmography is The Heir of the Pruna House. The Catalan title is L'hereu de Can Pruna. The picture is thirteen shots, nearly all of them wide views of a different outdoor place, with one close view of the posted notice.
Themes
In film history
A Barcelona chase comedy built on the American "husband wanted" advertisement films of the same year, shot on the roads around Horta.
Making
Chomón moved three 1904 American chase comedies to Spanish streets: Wallace McCutcheon's Personal, Edwin S. Porter's How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns, and Siegmund Lubin's Meet Me at the Fountain.
Look
Chomón cuts the pursuit across real lanes, a wall, an orchard, and a fountain, and once pans with the runners instead of holding the camera still.
Technique
One shot is broken by a close-up of the handwritten marriage notice, then returns to the wide view.
Preservation
Considered lost until 2002, when a nitrate copy, missing only the final seconds, was found at the Cinema Museum of Girona.
Notes
- English Wikipedia calls it the first Spanish comedy film.
- The chase is covered from the front, from a 45-degree angle, and from the side. In the side view the camera pans briefly with the runners.
- A nitrate print turned up in 2002 at the Cinema Museum of Girona. Only the ending is missing.
- The notice in the film names the Chicha-Chic farm in Horta, now a district of Barcelona.
Scenes
- The heir waits under a huge laurel branch while the women pour through the gate.
- He steals a bicycle, crashes, and is still running when the surviving print reaches the fountain.
Influenced by
- Personal (1904)
- How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns (1904)
- Meet Me at the Fountain (1904)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (L'hereu de Ca'n Pruna (1904).webm)
