The Mystic Swing
About The Mystic Swing
A professor shows Mephisto his power by setting a young woman in a swing that had been empty. Mephisto makes her vanish. The professor brings a second woman into the swing, and a skeleton appears with her. The Edison catalog sold that description at 60 feet.
Cast & crew
More about The Mystic Swing
Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on March 21, 1900, number D6368, and the Edison catalog listed it at 60 feet. The AFI catalog credits J. Stuart Blackton as director and Albert E. Smith as cameraman, and calls Vitagraph's New York rooftop the probable set. Charles Musser writes that it does not appear to have been made at the Edison studio, while other lists name Edwin S. Porter as cameraman.
Themes
Preservation
A paper print is in the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection. The Library of Congress times a viewing copy at 57 seconds at 16 frames per second.
Notes
- The Library of Congress paper-print note says Niver names Porter as cameraman and gives no source for that credit.
- A Selig catalog tells the trick differently: a dwarf appears in the swing, then the woman, then a skeleton, and the film ends with the women and the magicians taking a bow.
- Silent Era records the length as 60 feet and a release in March 1900.
Scenes
- Mephisto clears the swing, and the professor's next pass puts a second woman there with a skeleton.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The mystic swing (1900).webm)
