The '?' Motorist
About The '?' Motorist
A motorcar painted a glowing white refuses to stop for the police. It drives up the face of a building, leaves the ground, and travels through the sky. At one point the car turns into a horse and carriage.
Cast & crew
More about The '?' Motorist
Walter R. Booth directed this trick comedy for producer Robert W. Paul. It was released in October 1906 and was one of the last films Booth made for Paul. He remade the idea in 1911 as The Automatic Motorist. Also called The Mad Motorist and Questionmark Motorist.
Themes
Technique
Substitution and miniature tricks send the car up a wall and off the planet.
Preservation
The short survives and is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Michael Brooke, writing for BFI Screenonline, linked the tricks to the fantasies Booth later made for Charles Urban, from 1907 to 1911.
- Writers have also set it next to Georges Méliès's The Impossible Voyage.
Scenes
- The car climbs the side of a building.
- The same car is later a horse and carriage.
Influenced
- The Automatic Motorist (1911)
