Whimsical Illusions
About Whimsical Illusions
A magician, played by Georges Méliès, and his assistant Manuel run a set of stage tricks on film. Giant playing cards come out of a display stand. A head comes out of a crate and chases the magician. Potted plants appear among the other illusions. The surviving print is hand-colored.
Cast & crew
More about Whimsical Illusions
Star Film numbered it 1508–1512. Méliès plays the magician and Manuel the assistant. Reference works date the film 1909. The head-in-a-crate trick is his 1891 stage illusion "Le décapité récalcitrant," in which the head belonged to a pedant called Professor Barbenfouillis.
Themes
Preservation
A hand-colored print survives. It was shown again at the Gala Méliès on December 16, 1929.
Notes
- Jean Mauclaire found the print in the 1920s among Méliès films that had been shown at the Grands Magasins Dufayel and then stored at the Château de Jeufosse.
- He showed it at the Gala Méliès in the Salle Pleyel on December 16, 1929.
- The Gala program called the print an original colored copy. Some Gala prints were colored in 1929 for that night.
- A story that Berthe Thuillier did the 1929 coloring was denied in her interview in Le Nouvel Art Cinématographique (January 1930).
Scenes
- Giant cards leave the display stand.
- A head climbs out of a crate and chases Méliès around the stage.
