The Gold Spider
About The Gold Spider
Gnomes hunt a spider that spins webs of gold coins. They catch it and lock it in their cave. A poor woodcutter has followed them in. He watches the spider make gold and other objects, then steals the spider.
Cast & crew
More about The Gold Spider
Segundo de Chomón directed the trick short for Pathé. The French title is L'Araignée d'or. Moving Picture World carried a synopsis that stops on the woodcutter's theft and praises the trick shots.
Themes
Making
Chomón staged the gnomes' cave as a trick film: the spider's gold appears by substitution and stop-motion rather than by a prop web.
Reviews
Moving Picture World, publishing the 1908 synopsis, singled out the trick photography when the spider makes gold.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives and has been posted as L'Araignee d'or (1908).ogv on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The Moving Picture World synopsis says the gnomes are so intent on the search that they never notice the woodcutter behind them.
- The same notice says the camera "excelled itself" on the shots of the spider making gold and other articles.
- A Wikimedia file is titled L'Araignee d'or (1908).ogv.
Scenes
- The gnomes shut the spider in the cave and it spins gold coins.
- The woodcutter, unseen, takes the spider with him.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (L'Araignee d'or (1908).ogv)
