The Woes of Roller Skaters (1908) User Reviews

Tummelers

[boblipton · 5/10 · 16 March 2008]

When I was a kid, about when Hector was a pup, they still had acts like this: they would play the Catskill resorts and parties at country clubs: some people would come out and look like they were going to break their necks and the audience would laugh uproariously. They were called 'tummelers', which was Yiddish for.... well, the sort of act where someone would come out and pretend to almost break his neck. Usually it involved people falling off diving boards. Here it's people almost killing themselves on roller skates.

It is not as easy as falling of a log.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

People on Roller Skates Falling Down

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 20 November 2017]

After a performance by some skilled roller skaters, some in the audience (clowns included) decide they would like to try. One group goes into a house and as soon as they have their skates on, they demolish the room, knocking over china cabinets, and breaking dishes and furniture. They are hauled off to jail and have their skates confiscated. The police see the pile of skates and the rest is history. Other than there being an inability to even move on skates, it's just dull.

Les patineurs review

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 16 May 2020]

Something a little different from Melies, who abandons his photo trickery to tell a so-so comedy in which an overweight family purchase some second-hand roller skates with disastrous results. Given the last scene, in which a group of hapless policeman are seen pratfalling after commandeering the skates, you have to wonder whether Mack Sennett saw this movie at some time.

Not one of Georges Méliès' best...in fact, it just might be his worst!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 23 August 2020]

Normally, I really enjoy watching films by Georges Méliès. He was a genius whose early films really brought a lot of wonderful innovations to pictures. That being said, "Les Patineurs" is a terrible film...one of his worst. There are two main reasons---parts of the film SHOULD have been re-shot and the story is so broad and overdone that it's almost embarrassing to watch.

The story begins with a bunch of rich folks watching a roller skating demonstration. As they leave, someone is selling roller skates...and the rich folks buy them. Once they put on the skates, however, instead of effortlessly skating about like the couple in the demonstration, they fall and break EVERYTHING around them. The police soon arrest everyone (why??) and the cops try out the skates for themselves...and hilarity ensues...or at least it should have.

During the unfunny scene where the rich folks don skates, things get knocked around and smashed. But it really wasn't filmed well, as you could see the paper background ALSO being knocked about! And, the rest of it just isn't funny and has zero subtlety....none whatsoever. A rare misstep for the master filmmaker.

By the way, if you do watch it, what's with the guy who is dressed in a fat suit to make him look like a giant beachball?! And, what's with the grotesque make-up and wig on him and a few other of the rich folks?!

The Comedy Goes Flat

[Michael_Elliott · 19 August 2012]

The Woes of Roller Skates (1908)

** (out of 4)

aka Les Patineurs

A group of people attend a show where the highlight is a couple people doing tricks on roller skates. It looks easy enough so the group all buy roller skates and take them home where it doesn't take long for stuff to get broken from all the falls. This here really appears to be another later day film where the director was trying to expand the running time and fit the need for longer movies. At just 7-minutes this is still quite short by today's standards but back when this was released the French director was going from shorter movies to these here, which ran a bit longer. Sure, Melies had epic, longer running films throughout his career but for those he actually had a story to tell. With this film, and several others, it really does feel like a one joke movie that could have worked within a few minutes but when you stretch it out it just becomes flat. The "comedy" of seeing an obese fan trying to roller skate was mildly amusing but overall the film is lacking any real laughs. There are bits and pieces just thrown in for no reason and it appears the only purpose was to expand the running time. This is far from a bad movie but it's no where near a good one from Melies.