The Vanishing Lady
About The Vanishing Lady
Georges Méliès walks on as a conjurer, spreads a newspaper, and sets a chair on it. Jehanne d’Alcy sits. He covers her with a cloth and she is gone. He then produces a skeleton in the chair, covers it, and uncovers d’Alcy, who takes the bow.
Cast & crew
More about The Vanishing Lady
Star Film catalog number 70. Méliès filmed it outdoors on a small platform dressed with theater flats. D’Alcy, who had done the stage version at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, plays the woman.
Themes
Making
Méliès had already performed de Kolta’s vanishing-lady act at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. The stage trick ended when the woman was gone. The film adds the skeleton and her return.
Technique
The substitution splice holds Méliès still while d’Alcy leaves the chair, then again for the skeleton. No trapdoor is used.
Music
Silent. No composer is credited.
Preservation
Prints survive in black and white. Jacques Malthête reconstructed a hand-colored version in 1979 with period materials. In 2017 the Cinémathèque Française scanned its 35mm copy in 4K.
Notes
- The French title is Escamotage d’une dame chez Robert-Houdin.
- On stage, Buatier de Kolta’s assistant escaped through a trap hidden by a rubber newspaper. This film keeps the newspaper and the cloth and does the disappearance with a cut.
- An 1895 Edison picture, The Execution of Mary Stuart, had already used a substitution splice. This is the first Méliès film known to use that cut for a magic trick.
- Méliès later said he found the splice when his camera jammed.
Scenes
- Méliès spreads the newspaper, seats d’Alcy, and covers her.
- The cloth comes off an empty chair, then off a skeleton.
- She is back in the chair for the bow.
Influenced by
- Buatier de Kolta's vanishing-lady illusion
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert-Houdin (Georges Méliès, 1896).webm)
