The Sculptor's Nightmare
About The Sculptor's Nightmare
At a political club the members argue over whose bust should replace Theodore Roosevelt's. They cannot agree. Each pays a sculptor to make his own favorite. The sculptor spends the fees on a dinner with his model, gets drunk, and is taken to jail. In the nightmare, clay forms busts of William Jennings Bryan, Charles W. Fairbanks, and William Howard Taft. They come to life. A bust of Roosevelt appears last.
Cast & crew
More about The Sculptor's Nightmare
Wallace McCutcheon directed. G. W. Bitzer photographed it. Biograph produced it. EOFFTV gives 11 minutes. Florence Auer plays the model. Edward Dillon is in the cast. D. W. Griffith, Anthony O'Sullivan, Mack Sennett, and Harry Solter are uncredited extras. The busts are stop-motion.
Themes
Background
Made in 1908, the year Taft, Bryan, and Fairbanks were the names in the presidential fight.
Making
Bitzer stop-motioned the clay so the political busts assemble themselves in the jail dream.
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the club, the dinner, and the stop-motion busts in the jail.
Technique
Stop-motion clay builds the busts of Bryan, Fairbanks, Taft, and Roosevelt.
Notes
- The argument is who replaces Roosevelt, not a portrait of a private man.
- The three living busts are Bryan, Fairbanks, and Taft. Roosevelt's bust comes after them.
- Griffith is an extra, not the director.
- The dinner with the model is where the fees go.
Scenes
- Each member bribes the sculptor for a different bust.
- In jail the clay forms Bryan, Fairbanks, Taft, and then Roosevelt.
