The Watermelon Patch
About The Watermelon Patch
Men slip into a Southern watermelon patch where scarecrows stand among the vines, and they carry melons off. Two of the scarecrows come to life as skeletons and chase them. Farmers follow bloodhounds to a cabin, nail the doors and windows shut, and cover the chimney. Smoke fills the room. The people inside sneeze, panic, and find they cannot get out.
Cast & crew
More about The Watermelon Patch
Edison copyrighted it on October 20, 1905, and released it on October 24, at 725 feet. Silent Era credits Edwin S. Porter as director and cameraman. Wallace McCutcheon Sr., who had moved from Biograph to Edison earlier that year, is also named on the film.
Themes
Background
Edison sold the reel as a comedy about Black watermelon thieves smoked out of a cabin. The catalog text uses a slur.
Making
The skeleton scarecrows are a trick cut. The cabin sequence is a separate interior, with smoke pumped in after the doors are boarded.
Look
Porter photographed the patch, the woods chase, and the cabin interior, cutting the scarecrows into skeletons.
Technique
A substitution in the patch turns the scarecrows into skeletons before the hound chase begins.
Notes
- The Edison catalog calls the setting a typical Southern patch and starts the chase with living scarecrows.
- The scarecrows are revealed as skeletons.
- Farmers follow bloodhounds to a cabin, then use smoke rather than catching the men in the field.
- The catalog text uses a racial slur for the people shut in the cabin.
Scenes
- Two scarecrows step off their posts as skeletons.
- Farmers board the cabin and cap the chimney.
- Smoke drives the people inside into a rush for doors that will not open.
