Willie's Magic Wand
About Willie's Magic Wand
A magician shows his son Willie what the wand can do, pulling a doll from an empty tube. While the father reads a newspaper, Willie takes the wand. A fish prepared for supper flies at the cook, a pillow attacks a maid and spills its feathers, and his grandmother grows a thick beard.
Cast & crew
More about Willie's Magic Wand
Walter R. Booth directed the trick short for the Charles Urban Trading Company. Michael Brooke, writing for BFI Screenonline, compares the gags to Booth's The Haunted Curiosity Shop and Undressing Extraordinary.
Themes
Look
Booth stages the tricks as substitution and stop-camera gags in a series of room sets, including the flying fish and the bearded grandmother.
Technique
The short is built from separate trick set pieces: a fish that flies, a pillow that empties itself, and a beard that appears on the grandmother.
Preservation
The National Film and Television Archive holds an incomplete 35mm print of 186 feet. A Wikimedia copy is in circulation.
Notes
- The National Film and Television Archive print runs 186 feet and is incomplete.
- The missing finish, described by Brooke, turns Willie into a girl as punishment.
- Brooke also describes Willie making his sister's kitten explode.
- A clip is in Paul Merton's BFI guide How They Laughed.
Scenes
- A fish leaves the kitchen table and attacks the cook.
- Willie's grandmother is given a bushy beard.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Willie's Magic Wand (1907).webm)
