This is an interesting little film that, for 1905, is pretty good but for today's audiences it's mostly only of historical value. It excels because the film has a plot and pacing and some decent action (at times) for the times. Sure, the film isn't exactly LASSIE, but it's pretty good fare for 1905. The film is about a baby-napping and the faithful Collie who comes to the child's rescue! The problem for me, though, is that although I am a real Cinephile and love historical films, the quality of this film doesn't come close to the really wonderful short films Georges Méliès was making at the same time--with great camera tricks, better and more interesting plots and are much more entertaining today.
14 Reviews
First film with a dog in a starring role
AlsExGal3 July 2023
The opening shot is that of Rover sitting near the baby of the family, probably just to establish that there is a close and protective relationship there.
Next the nurse is seen taking the baby for a stroll in his carriage. A woman comes up to the nurse and begs for money and is refused. When the nurse's attention is diverted, the angry woman steals the baby. The nurse is rightfully distraught and tells the mother. Rover overhears and goes out to search for the baby. In one of the first cases on film of a dog stereotyping he first searches the local tenement because he assumes a poor person did this. Not being a cop he can just bust down door after door looking until he comes upon the baby. The kidnapper shoos the dog away then gets drunk and goes to sleep. The dog then goes to get the parents so they can retrieve the baby.
It really was all in the family here. Cecil Hepworth directed the film and Mrs. Hepworth wrote the script. Cecil, his wife, and their baby star as the family in the film. Blair, who plays Rover, was the Hepworth family dog. Hepworth continued making films into the 1920s but could not make the transition into longer films with more complex narratives and his business went bankrupt in 1924.
This film does a good job of building suspense - the audience does not know where the kidnapper has taken the child or what she wants with her.
Next the nurse is seen taking the baby for a stroll in his carriage. A woman comes up to the nurse and begs for money and is refused. When the nurse's attention is diverted, the angry woman steals the baby. The nurse is rightfully distraught and tells the mother. Rover overhears and goes out to search for the baby. In one of the first cases on film of a dog stereotyping he first searches the local tenement because he assumes a poor person did this. Not being a cop he can just bust down door after door looking until he comes upon the baby. The kidnapper shoos the dog away then gets drunk and goes to sleep. The dog then goes to get the parents so they can retrieve the baby.
It really was all in the family here. Cecil Hepworth directed the film and Mrs. Hepworth wrote the script. Cecil, his wife, and their baby star as the family in the film. Blair, who plays Rover, was the Hepworth family dog. Hepworth continued making films into the 1920s but could not make the transition into longer films with more complex narratives and his business went bankrupt in 1924.
This film does a good job of building suspense - the audience does not know where the kidnapper has taken the child or what she wants with her.
Timmy Fell In the Well
Hitchcoc14 May 2019
That was quite an amazing dog. He is smarter than any of the humans in this little film. When some really weird woman kidnaps a baby while the nursemaid is making whoopee with a police officer, Rover listens, then goes in search of the little girl. He also has the ability to communicate with humans. Obviously, this is pure poppycock when it comes to reality.
Trend Setter
Blargh-27 November 1999
I'd like to correct the first user comment saying that DW Griffith's influences are easily seen in Rescued by Rover. DW Griffith's first film was in 1908, 4 years after Rescued by Rover. Rescued by Rover shows how directors showed spatial continuity to audiences who were used to seeing overlapping shots. Audiences were very simple during that time and this film helped shape the way an audience watches a film.
Rescued by Rover is really only worth watching for its influence on film. The story is extremely basic and certainly not as suspenseful as it would have been in the early 1900s
Rescued by Rover is really only worth watching for its influence on film. The story is extremely basic and certainly not as suspenseful as it would have been in the early 1900s
So Much History In 7 Minutes
springfieldrental11 November 2020
Rescued By Rover is indeed a milestone in cinematic history in so many ways. Today's audiences may not appreciate the simple story of a dog sniffing out a family's missing baby, but there are several historical aspects of this 1905 film worth noting.
If you somewhat familiar with earlier films coming from Biograph and Edison Studios (the primary film production companies making movies in the early 1900's), a large sampling are "chase" films such as "The Escape Lunatic," "The Moonshiner" and "Personal," all released a year earlier. Since film language was still evolving, these older movies would follow a long string of events which wouldn't conclude until every participant was completely passing by the camera.
In the Hepworth's film one notices the crisp clips that didn't devolve into seemingly unending segments of people going through their paces. Slicing 20 shots into the movie, Cecil Hepworth and primary director Lewin Fitzhammon created a natural flow so appreciated by today's standards. The scenes of the dog tracking the baby zipped along, cutting out unnecessary elongation of extended scenes. Maybe having an animal, with a short attention span, required these scenes to be short. Whatever the reason, Rescued established a new way of editing at a much faster pace.
This was also one of the first movies to use Peter Cooper-Hewitt's new Mercury Vapor Lamps to illuminate an interior movie set. Previously, filming had to be done under the sun in open air or glass studios. One can see the lights plugged in and used during the attic scenes where the drunken woman is with the baby.
Rescue today is primarily known for being the first movie to portray as its hero an animal. The loving family dog of the Hepworth's, Blair, is the star here, a pioneering showcase of an animal carrying the story, a la a Lassie or a Flipper. In addition, the film, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the cheapest movie ever produced, tabbing at a minuscule $37.40. Much of the expense I would imagine was paying for two of the actors, the baby's kidnapper and a soldier.
One last noteworthy aspect is that the film existing today was likely not the original one. Rover was so successful that the Hepworths wore out two other negatives making hundreds of prints for a demanding public and had to reshoot the scenes. The print seen here is likely the third effort of making a new negative for reprints.
If you somewhat familiar with earlier films coming from Biograph and Edison Studios (the primary film production companies making movies in the early 1900's), a large sampling are "chase" films such as "The Escape Lunatic," "The Moonshiner" and "Personal," all released a year earlier. Since film language was still evolving, these older movies would follow a long string of events which wouldn't conclude until every participant was completely passing by the camera.
In the Hepworth's film one notices the crisp clips that didn't devolve into seemingly unending segments of people going through their paces. Slicing 20 shots into the movie, Cecil Hepworth and primary director Lewin Fitzhammon created a natural flow so appreciated by today's standards. The scenes of the dog tracking the baby zipped along, cutting out unnecessary elongation of extended scenes. Maybe having an animal, with a short attention span, required these scenes to be short. Whatever the reason, Rescued established a new way of editing at a much faster pace.
This was also one of the first movies to use Peter Cooper-Hewitt's new Mercury Vapor Lamps to illuminate an interior movie set. Previously, filming had to be done under the sun in open air or glass studios. One can see the lights plugged in and used during the attic scenes where the drunken woman is with the baby.
Rescue today is primarily known for being the first movie to portray as its hero an animal. The loving family dog of the Hepworth's, Blair, is the star here, a pioneering showcase of an animal carrying the story, a la a Lassie or a Flipper. In addition, the film, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the cheapest movie ever produced, tabbing at a minuscule $37.40. Much of the expense I would imagine was paying for two of the actors, the baby's kidnapper and a soldier.
One last noteworthy aspect is that the film existing today was likely not the original one. Rover was so successful that the Hepworths wore out two other negatives making hundreds of prints for a demanding public and had to reshoot the scenes. The print seen here is likely the third effort of making a new negative for reprints.
Early English Lassie
addick-21 March 2002
Probably influenced more by Edwin Porter than D W Griffith this early chase movie shows how far film had come since the one shot actualities of the first few years of the century. Interesting studio sets, especially the arclit attic, and remarkable smooth editing. Also makes use of planting, in this case a seemingly innocuous boat, that will play an important role in the latter part of the film. Notable also for an outstanding performance by Blair, the dog, who hits every mark on cue and whose understated performance puts the hammy humans to shame.
Rover romps into cinema history
des-4716 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The story told in Rescued by Rover is banal and preposterous, with a tinge of nasty prejudice against the poor. But watch this modest six minute film shot in leafy Walton-on-Thames after some of the earlier silent classics and you should immediately see why critic Michael Brooke of the BFI labelled it "amongst the most important films ever made" and "possibly the only point in film history when British cinema unquestionably led the world." The Great Train Robbery was made only two years before, but in its editing and pace, Rescued by Rover is in a different class. Suddenly the cinema seems to have leapt light years forward and in a few sequences there's little to distinguish this film, now more than a century old, from the way such a story would be mounted today.
When a baby is kidnapped by a female beggar, Rover the collie, faithful pet of the baby's family, springs into action. He jumps through a window, runs down streets and swims a river to reach a row of meagre cottages where he locates the missing child. He's shooed away by the beggar, who is clearly a bad lot as she constantly swigs beer straight from the bottle. Back home, Rover employs the art of doggie pantomime to persuade his master to accompany him back to the cottages and reclaim his child.
The film's narrative breakthrough is most obvious in the sequences depicting Rover's journeys, and in particular in their narrative logic and their treatment of time. Previously films presenting longer narratives were constructed by stringing together a series of discrete tableaux-like single shot scenes. While the audience might imagine time elapsing offscreen in the gaps between scenes, just as in the theatre, the action within each scene took place in real time. Here, directors Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon entirely abandon the tableau structure, instead using editing, and particularly matches on action, to create narrative sequences from several shots, compressing time and eliding actions that the audience will take as read to create narrative drive, tension, pace and excitement.
So while the domestic interior where the mother reacts distraughtly to the loss of her child early on in the film looks like an old fashioned tableau, we can already see Rover moving excitedly around in the frame before jumping through the window. This action propels us into the first hunt sequence: the film cuts to the exterior of the house with Rover emerging from the window then, in succession, we see him running down a street, rounding a corner and swimming a river. This river is an important feature: it provides the opportunity to vary the action, to underline the challenge and to get a great closeup of the dog shaking himself dry, as well as providing a memorable landmark to help viewers apprehend the film's narrative geography. It also, incidentally, dramatically underlines the division between the comfortable world of Rover and the baby, and the 'wrong side of the river', the impoverished domain of the kidnapper.
We then see the entire sequence of locations in reverse as the dog returns home – and both times, the journey is already taking much less time on screen than it would take in reality. When dog and master return together, time is compressed still further – now we know the route, we only need to see a shot each of the street and the river, where Rover has helpfully located a rowing boat for his human companion. The final journey isn't shown at all – the film cuts straight from the beggar's garret to the family home. Now that the baby is safe, the suspense is resolved, and the audience is expected to fill in the logical blanks so that the film can get on with satisfying the need for 'closure' by showing the family happily reunited.
There are some other interesting technical features too – the scenes in the beggar's room provide an early example of using artificial lighting to create mood rather than simply to make sure the action is clear – but they pale beside the triumph of continuity, framing and editing. There are a few precedents of multiple shot chase scenes and matches on action, but the extent to which these techniques were brought together and elaborated upon so skilfully here seems genuinely unprecedented.
Cecil Hepworth, son of a magic lanternist, was one of the leading founding fathers of the British film industry, continuing to make films into the 1920s. Rescued by Rover was a family affair: Hepworth himself, his wife Margaret and their baby are the family in the film, Rover is their own dog, and Margaret wrote the screenplay. The beggar and another minor character are played by professional actors, quite likely another first for British cinema. The film was a great success, and was remounted twice as the negative wore out from striking so many prints (back then, prints were sold rather than rented to exhibitors and the demand was huge). It is credited with, among other things, inspiring D W Griffith and popularising the name 'Rover' for dogs.
Many of its tropes were recycled in the swathes of films featuring resourceful animals that followed – the scene in which Rover tries to get his master to follow him, in which we're invited to share the dog's imagined frustration at being unable to talk, gave rise to a genre staple. But decades before Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo pressed their paws into the walk of fame, there was Rover, paddling gamely across a Thames valley stream.
When a baby is kidnapped by a female beggar, Rover the collie, faithful pet of the baby's family, springs into action. He jumps through a window, runs down streets and swims a river to reach a row of meagre cottages where he locates the missing child. He's shooed away by the beggar, who is clearly a bad lot as she constantly swigs beer straight from the bottle. Back home, Rover employs the art of doggie pantomime to persuade his master to accompany him back to the cottages and reclaim his child.
The film's narrative breakthrough is most obvious in the sequences depicting Rover's journeys, and in particular in their narrative logic and their treatment of time. Previously films presenting longer narratives were constructed by stringing together a series of discrete tableaux-like single shot scenes. While the audience might imagine time elapsing offscreen in the gaps between scenes, just as in the theatre, the action within each scene took place in real time. Here, directors Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon entirely abandon the tableau structure, instead using editing, and particularly matches on action, to create narrative sequences from several shots, compressing time and eliding actions that the audience will take as read to create narrative drive, tension, pace and excitement.
So while the domestic interior where the mother reacts distraughtly to the loss of her child early on in the film looks like an old fashioned tableau, we can already see Rover moving excitedly around in the frame before jumping through the window. This action propels us into the first hunt sequence: the film cuts to the exterior of the house with Rover emerging from the window then, in succession, we see him running down a street, rounding a corner and swimming a river. This river is an important feature: it provides the opportunity to vary the action, to underline the challenge and to get a great closeup of the dog shaking himself dry, as well as providing a memorable landmark to help viewers apprehend the film's narrative geography. It also, incidentally, dramatically underlines the division between the comfortable world of Rover and the baby, and the 'wrong side of the river', the impoverished domain of the kidnapper.
We then see the entire sequence of locations in reverse as the dog returns home – and both times, the journey is already taking much less time on screen than it would take in reality. When dog and master return together, time is compressed still further – now we know the route, we only need to see a shot each of the street and the river, where Rover has helpfully located a rowing boat for his human companion. The final journey isn't shown at all – the film cuts straight from the beggar's garret to the family home. Now that the baby is safe, the suspense is resolved, and the audience is expected to fill in the logical blanks so that the film can get on with satisfying the need for 'closure' by showing the family happily reunited.
There are some other interesting technical features too – the scenes in the beggar's room provide an early example of using artificial lighting to create mood rather than simply to make sure the action is clear – but they pale beside the triumph of continuity, framing and editing. There are a few precedents of multiple shot chase scenes and matches on action, but the extent to which these techniques were brought together and elaborated upon so skilfully here seems genuinely unprecedented.
Cecil Hepworth, son of a magic lanternist, was one of the leading founding fathers of the British film industry, continuing to make films into the 1920s. Rescued by Rover was a family affair: Hepworth himself, his wife Margaret and their baby are the family in the film, Rover is their own dog, and Margaret wrote the screenplay. The beggar and another minor character are played by professional actors, quite likely another first for British cinema. The film was a great success, and was remounted twice as the negative wore out from striking so many prints (back then, prints were sold rather than rented to exhibitors and the demand was huge). It is credited with, among other things, inspiring D W Griffith and popularising the name 'Rover' for dogs.
Many of its tropes were recycled in the swathes of films featuring resourceful animals that followed – the scene in which Rover tries to get his master to follow him, in which we're invited to share the dog's imagined frustration at being unable to talk, gave rise to a genre staple. But decades before Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo pressed their paws into the walk of fame, there was Rover, paddling gamely across a Thames valley stream.
Interesting for the technique, the manner of story telling and the way the Hepworth family dog is very effective in a key role
bob the moo21 April 2007
A young woman is out for a walk in the park when a young man distracts her and allows another woman to nip in and kidnap the baby without being seen. The mother is distraught when she learns of this crime but it appears the baby is lost forever. However faithful family dog Rover sets out to see if he can't locate the tot.
Not great as a story, this film is mostly of interest because of its age and the techniques that must still have been in their infancy at this time. Rather than a static shot of an event, this film tells a dramatic story (albeit in a very simple fashion) and features multiple shots running together over time and space to do it. Yes, of course this is now such a familiar thing that to point it out seems stupid but there we have it it is relevant. The also quite impressed me in the acting of the dog (who was actually called Blair, I don't care what the IMDb credits say). The DVD gave me the impression that this was merely the Hepworth family pet (they are also in the film themselves) but it does very well with the action and moves on cue but not in a mechanical way that over-trained dogs sometimes do. The reason for this is that the crew set out sausages for him and, where he breaks down one door after another it is because he hasn't found any so moves on! Interesting then for the technique, the manner of story telling and the way the Hepworth family dog is very effective in a key role.
Not great as a story, this film is mostly of interest because of its age and the techniques that must still have been in their infancy at this time. Rather than a static shot of an event, this film tells a dramatic story (albeit in a very simple fashion) and features multiple shots running together over time and space to do it. Yes, of course this is now such a familiar thing that to point it out seems stupid but there we have it it is relevant. The also quite impressed me in the acting of the dog (who was actually called Blair, I don't care what the IMDb credits say). The DVD gave me the impression that this was merely the Hepworth family pet (they are also in the film themselves) but it does very well with the action and moves on cue but not in a mechanical way that over-trained dogs sometimes do. The reason for this is that the crew set out sausages for him and, where he breaks down one door after another it is because he hasn't found any so moves on! Interesting then for the technique, the manner of story telling and the way the Hepworth family dog is very effective in a key role.
Great early story film
briancham199419 November 2020
This is an early example of a film that shows a whole dramatic narrative story, and it is much better than Hepworth's earlier attempt at producing Alice in Wonderland. The story itself, while quite basic, shows a good understanding of dramatic and emotional impact. The camera work is clear and follows the action of the dog who plays the role quite convincingly.
Very finely directed short drama
martinpersson9711 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This incredible achievement in the early days of cinema, is ever worth checking out for any lover of film.
The script is simple, yet effective, conveying the necessary emotions and conflicts in the necessary time, and it features some pretty good acting.
It is beautifully put together in terms of cinematography, and is neatly paced - managing to convey a pretty solid story throughout a rather short runtime.
Overall, indeed a film that I would recommend checking out for lovers of film. It is a very sweet, suspenseful and cleverly put together piece. Check this out for sure, if you are interested in cinema!
The script is simple, yet effective, conveying the necessary emotions and conflicts in the necessary time, and it features some pretty good acting.
It is beautifully put together in terms of cinematography, and is neatly paced - managing to convey a pretty solid story throughout a rather short runtime.
Overall, indeed a film that I would recommend checking out for lovers of film. It is a very sweet, suspenseful and cleverly put together piece. Check this out for sure, if you are interested in cinema!
Simple Story, Good Story-Telling
Snow Leopard2 April 2002
The story of "Rescued By Rover" is simple, but it's told quite well for its time. There is good action, good continuity from one scene to the next, and most of the shots are carried off well. It takes a somewhat predictable (and perhaps implausible) story and gives it energy, using occasional cross-cutting and mixing some indoor and outdoor scenes.
The story is the kind of melodrama that was very common in the earliest years of narrative films, but it also features some imaginative touches in the details. Most of the characters are rather plain, so the dog is the liveliest member of the cast. It was probably rather an achievement to get "Rover" to behave so well, and his actions come across as quite believable.
While the story is of a now-familiar kind, it was probably more novel at the time, and in any case this remains a worthwhile example of rather good early story-telling technique.
The story is the kind of melodrama that was very common in the earliest years of narrative films, but it also features some imaginative touches in the details. Most of the characters are rather plain, so the dog is the liveliest member of the cast. It was probably rather an achievement to get "Rover" to behave so well, and his actions come across as quite believable.
While the story is of a now-familiar kind, it was probably more novel at the time, and in any case this remains a worthwhile example of rather good early story-telling technique.
Narrative Development: Continuity
Cineanalyst2 August 2004
The Great War wrecked the European film market, allowing the US to become the dominant film-making nation, and it has remained so to this day. Pathé of France, for a time, was the largest producer of films, and continued to be successful during the war due to its American subsidiary. British filmmakers, however, advanced the art form the most during the early nineteen-naughts (Georges Méliès and Edwin S. Porter were, more or less, national anomalies), reaching something of a national peak with "Rescued by Rover." Cecil Hepworth managed the most prominent British film company of the period, and they managed to stay successful during the war, before being outdone in the 1920s.
From what I've read in "The Oxford History of World Cinema," Hepworth was outdone partially because the editing in his films became incoherent (fades being used where cuts should be and vise-versa). Rather odd considering that editing is part of what makes "Rescued by Rover" a landmark in film history. Hepworth and director Lewin Fitzhamon wisely use simple cuts in this rescue picture. "Rescued by Rover" was a great commercial success; so much so (again, according to the afore cited source), that Hepworth had it remade twice to supply enough prints (presumably because the negatives wore out). I watched one of the remakes. (I'll relay details to the alternate versions section of this website.) Hepworth sold 395 prints, which was very good for the era (Chanan, "Early Cinema").
The story of "Rescued by Rover" is in the early film tradition of temperance and bourgeois fear of the poor; an alcoholic vagrant abducts a baby from a neglectful nurse, so a cute dog must rescue the child. After the dog gets the aid of a man, the man uses a boat to cross an inlet. I'm not sure the man had to use the boat when two bridges are visible within the frame. I guess it's part of the absurdity and lingering of the film. A dog is the rescuer, and the camera sits around patiently for the action to proceed, which, of course, is usual for the period. That the film doesn't do anything Griffith-like to hurry up with the suspense doesn't bother me--it's a short film, after all.
The continuity of the pace is the remarkable thing. Cuts for smooth transitions, panning to keep action within frame, a match cut to a closer look in the final scene, in addition to the similarity of indoor and outdoor lighting, make for a fluent film. In contrast with the lengthy rescue shots, the first and final ones aren't long enough. There's one or two jump cuts, too, or it could be just flickers. The worst problem, however, is the missing walls. It's probably feckless to mention it; not until filmmakers like Orson Welles came about would interior spatial dimensions be explored.
(Note: This is one of four films that I've commented on because they're landmarks of early narrative development in film history. The others are "As Seen Through a Telescope," "Le Voyage dans la lune" and "The Great Train Robbery".)
From what I've read in "The Oxford History of World Cinema," Hepworth was outdone partially because the editing in his films became incoherent (fades being used where cuts should be and vise-versa). Rather odd considering that editing is part of what makes "Rescued by Rover" a landmark in film history. Hepworth and director Lewin Fitzhamon wisely use simple cuts in this rescue picture. "Rescued by Rover" was a great commercial success; so much so (again, according to the afore cited source), that Hepworth had it remade twice to supply enough prints (presumably because the negatives wore out). I watched one of the remakes. (I'll relay details to the alternate versions section of this website.) Hepworth sold 395 prints, which was very good for the era (Chanan, "Early Cinema").
The story of "Rescued by Rover" is in the early film tradition of temperance and bourgeois fear of the poor; an alcoholic vagrant abducts a baby from a neglectful nurse, so a cute dog must rescue the child. After the dog gets the aid of a man, the man uses a boat to cross an inlet. I'm not sure the man had to use the boat when two bridges are visible within the frame. I guess it's part of the absurdity and lingering of the film. A dog is the rescuer, and the camera sits around patiently for the action to proceed, which, of course, is usual for the period. That the film doesn't do anything Griffith-like to hurry up with the suspense doesn't bother me--it's a short film, after all.
The continuity of the pace is the remarkable thing. Cuts for smooth transitions, panning to keep action within frame, a match cut to a closer look in the final scene, in addition to the similarity of indoor and outdoor lighting, make for a fluent film. In contrast with the lengthy rescue shots, the first and final ones aren't long enough. There's one or two jump cuts, too, or it could be just flickers. The worst problem, however, is the missing walls. It's probably feckless to mention it; not until filmmakers like Orson Welles came about would interior spatial dimensions be explored.
(Note: This is one of four films that I've commented on because they're landmarks of early narrative development in film history. The others are "As Seen Through a Telescope," "Le Voyage dans la lune" and "The Great Train Robbery".)
One of Early Cinema's Classics
Tornado_Sam21 September 2017
This short film is one of the longest I've seen from Hepworth Manufacturing Company, and it also may be among their most remembered movies that is still watched today. There is some fine camera-work here, with several pans, and I'm sure that for 1905 audiences were interested in seeing a film that actually told a story. While narrative films had been around for awhile, this movie still tells a story very well and manages to be pretty interesting, although the plot is of course pretty predictable by today's standards and the story is simple.
The film stars the Hepworth family dog in the role of Rover, a smart canine. When the family's baby daughter is kidnapped, Rover goes off to find her. That's all that happens here, and of course the kid is located. Later, canine heroes such as Rin-Tin-Tin would probably find inspiration from this, so I suppose this could be considered the first dog rescue picture. On its own, there's not much that people today would find worthwhile, so I wouldn't exactly recommend you see this if you aren't into these early movies.
Then again, if you're a film buff of historian, you would find this to be pretty entertaining. It accomplishes its goal and just goes to show how far we've gotten in movie-making since 1905.
(Note: I was slightly amused that the gypsy woman who kidnaps the baby drinks beer. Before she lies down to sleep, she takes a swig of beer, and lays down but not being satisfied enough she gets up to take another swig).
The film stars the Hepworth family dog in the role of Rover, a smart canine. When the family's baby daughter is kidnapped, Rover goes off to find her. That's all that happens here, and of course the kid is located. Later, canine heroes such as Rin-Tin-Tin would probably find inspiration from this, so I suppose this could be considered the first dog rescue picture. On its own, there's not much that people today would find worthwhile, so I wouldn't exactly recommend you see this if you aren't into these early movies.
Then again, if you're a film buff of historian, you would find this to be pretty entertaining. It accomplishes its goal and just goes to show how far we've gotten in movie-making since 1905.
(Note: I was slightly amused that the gypsy woman who kidnaps the baby drinks beer. Before she lies down to sleep, she takes a swig of beer, and lays down but not being satisfied enough she gets up to take another swig).
'Lassie' prototype
Brian-5912 August 1998
A ten-minute melodrama in which a baby is kidnapped by gypsies. Not only does Rover manage a brief solo boat ride to save his infant charge, but the cunning canine also brings the ne'er-do-wells to justice. Obviously influenced by their American contemporary, D.W. Griffith, this film's Director Fitzhamon and Producer/Cinematographer Hepworth demonstrate an early, limited, use of cross-cutting between two locales to heighten tension. The film's chase theme calls attention to the stage-bound blocking and camera placement typical of its day. Shots and takes are long , with entrances and exits always at the extreme sides of the frame.
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