This was one of the early British chase films which, along with A Daring Daylight Robbery, sparked a brief craze for chase films and inspired Edwin S. Porter to make The Great Train Robbery. For my money, Daylight Robbery is probably the more exciting of the two British films (but it's a close-run thing) but A Desperate Poching Affray is far more sophisticated in terms of film-making technique. It's also an early use of realistic violence with gun-play and fist-fights throughout. No doubt it would have appealed to its working class target audience who frequented the travelling fairground exhibitions of William Haggar and his sons. This one is definitely worth a look.
9 Reviews
No Eggs Were Cooked in This Movie
boblipton18 July 2018
Men with guns flee from other men, police and dogs in this film by Walter Hagar.
One of the IMDb reviews claims this is the first chase film. My immediate reaction to any claims of a cinematic first is denial, but a brief search shows that fellow British director, Alf Collins, who was accounted a specialist in chases, released his first chase film a month later. Then I remembered A DAYLIGHT ROBBERY, which had been released in July of that year.... and I await reports of earlier examples.
Regardless of who was first, it wouldn't take long for the genre to ripen. The following year there would be chase comedies, like HOW A FRENCH NOBLEMAN FOUND A WIFE THROUGH THE 'NEW YORK HERALD' PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
It's also a very advanced movie for 1903, starting off with a panning shot in the first of five scenes.
PS: About twenty minutes after writing this review, I looked at James Williamson's 1901 STOP, THIEF in which a housewife chases a tramp who has stolen a leg of lamb.
One of the IMDb reviews claims this is the first chase film. My immediate reaction to any claims of a cinematic first is denial, but a brief search shows that fellow British director, Alf Collins, who was accounted a specialist in chases, released his first chase film a month later. Then I remembered A DAYLIGHT ROBBERY, which had been released in July of that year.... and I await reports of earlier examples.
Regardless of who was first, it wouldn't take long for the genre to ripen. The following year there would be chase comedies, like HOW A FRENCH NOBLEMAN FOUND A WIFE THROUGH THE 'NEW YORK HERALD' PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
It's also a very advanced movie for 1903, starting off with a panning shot in the first of five scenes.
PS: About twenty minutes after writing this review, I looked at James Williamson's 1901 STOP, THIEF in which a housewife chases a tramp who has stolen a leg of lamb.
Reverse Angles
Cineanalyst4 October 2009
"A Desperate Poaching Affray" is an early and innovative chase and crime film. This early cinema genre of crime chases seems to have been invented in Britain. James Williamson's "Stop Thief!" (1901) is the earliest I know of. By 1903, British filmmakers made "A Daring Daylight Robbery", "Robbery of the Mail Coach" and this film, all of which heavily influenced the adoption of the genre across the Atlantic, most notably influencing "The Great Train Robbery" made later that year. "Desperate Poaching Affray" was an especially internationally popular subject: 480 prints were sold and more dupes were made in the U.S. (Michael Chanan, "Economic Conditions in Early Cinema" in "Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative"). Comedic chase films that came later would use the techniques and grammar invented in these dramatic counterparts.
The chase here, law enforcement pursuing poachers (and they all have guns), is clumsy, and the actors are noticeably amateurs, but what's exceptional about this picture, for its time, is its continuity editing, as well as some novel camera placement. It only consists of seven shots and lasts for only two to three minutes. Yet, there is some panning, untraditional camera placement and staging--where we see the actors approach and pass right by the camera in depth--and the earliest extended use of reverse-angle shots I know of (there are brief earlier examples, such as in "Attack on a China Mission" (1900)).
The first shot throws us right into the action. The poachers attempt to hide in some brush. The authorities approach from off-screen and into the frame. A pan allows the camera to follow the action as the chase begins. The second and third shots, as well as the third and fourth, are reverse-angle takes, where the pursued and pursuers run by the camera and into off-screen space, followed by a cut, with a framing of the action from the opposite, 180-degree angle to follow the action. The last three cuts and camera placements shadow the action in a fluid continuous manner, with the direction of the chase following the rules of the axis of action. The exceptional, modern continuity of this film--the harmony of the action, camera placement and editing--was unrivaled for years to come.
The chase here, law enforcement pursuing poachers (and they all have guns), is clumsy, and the actors are noticeably amateurs, but what's exceptional about this picture, for its time, is its continuity editing, as well as some novel camera placement. It only consists of seven shots and lasts for only two to three minutes. Yet, there is some panning, untraditional camera placement and staging--where we see the actors approach and pass right by the camera in depth--and the earliest extended use of reverse-angle shots I know of (there are brief earlier examples, such as in "Attack on a China Mission" (1900)).
The first shot throws us right into the action. The poachers attempt to hide in some brush. The authorities approach from off-screen and into the frame. A pan allows the camera to follow the action as the chase begins. The second and third shots, as well as the third and fourth, are reverse-angle takes, where the pursued and pursuers run by the camera and into off-screen space, followed by a cut, with a framing of the action from the opposite, 180-degree angle to follow the action. The last three cuts and camera placements shadow the action in a fluid continuous manner, with the direction of the chase following the rules of the axis of action. The exceptional, modern continuity of this film--the harmony of the action, camera placement and editing--was unrivaled for years to come.
Ho, hum,...for 1903 they could certainly do better than this!
planktonrules15 September 2006
While it is true that in the 1890s and 1900s that the films were often very, very short and very mundane, this did not mean that films HAD to be that way--Georges Méliès and the Pathé Brothers were making some very imaginative films with scripts, sets and lots of imagination. So, by comparison, this film comes up very, very short. The film is all too brief--with some guys catching and roughing up some poachers--and that's all!! In fact, the film is so short and uninspired that I can only see it of being much value to film historians and lovers of dull films. It just SHOULD have been better in 1903 and showed that a gap between quality films and the rest was increasing at the time.
"The first chase film"
peterjohnyorke18 July 2006
"We believe that "The Poachers" (as the film was known by the Haggar family and in the USA)"was the first chase film" ("World's Fair", August 1914). US Film historians have commented that "The Poachers helped to set the pattern for subsequent chase films in the USA". The film sold 470 copies - more than any other film on record. It was made with a tame rabbit and a coconut-shy net,on the hills above the Rhondda Valley, according to Walter Haggar,who took part in it as one of the gamekeepers. Gaumont-British marketed in for over a year: it is in their catalogues from June 1903 to July 1904.For more details, see my book, "William Haggar, fairground film-maker", to be published by Accent Press Ltd. in May 2007, and visit www.williamhaggar.co.uk
"Planktonrules'" comment of September 2006, it seems to me, is made with the benefit of far too much hindsight. William Haggar was quite isolated in South Wales, and may never have heard of Melies at the time when he made "Desperate Poaching Affray", which was, in any case, one of the longest British films when it was produced. This film was made principally for William's own fairground audience: he knew what they liked, and supplied it. "Anything good was marketed" commented his son Walter, and "The Poachers" (as it was renamed for selling in the USA) was so good that it sold 480 copies worldwide, more than any other recorded film.
"Planktonrules'" comment of September 2006, it seems to me, is made with the benefit of far too much hindsight. William Haggar was quite isolated in South Wales, and may never have heard of Melies at the time when he made "Desperate Poaching Affray", which was, in any case, one of the longest British films when it was produced. This film was made principally for William's own fairground audience: he knew what they liked, and supplied it. "Anything good was marketed" commented his son Walter, and "The Poachers" (as it was renamed for selling in the USA) was so good that it sold 480 copies worldwide, more than any other recorded film.
Has Plenty Of Action
Snow Leopard6 December 2002
There's a lot of action in this short feature that makes it worth watching even though it is pretty unrefined. The "Desperate Poaching Affray" begins when a couple of game poachers are spotted, and then the chase is on. Quite a bit happens after that, and it packs a lot of activity into just a few minutes of running time. The emphasis is certainly on the action, as most of the actors just race around without trying too hard to make their actions seem believable. But there's no denying that you want to see how it comes out, and anyway, most of the so-called action movies made today have even lower acting quality and plausibility standards, without being nearly so efficient as this one is in terms of actual entertainment value.
Fierce social critique framed as exciting thriller.
the red duchess15 March 2001
Unlikely as it might seem, this knockabout farmyard shootout is a precursor to the forbiddingly austere cinema of Robert Bresson - in its use of non-professional actors; and in its opening poaching scene, repeated in the master's 'Mouchette'. And, although this marvellous film is full of vivid action, brutal fisticuffs, fiery shootouts, and pond dunkings, with the breathless cast effectively tumbling the audience into the drama by hurling themselves in our direction, its vision of rural life is as bleak as Bresson's, an anti-pastoral in which the immemorial, supposedly natural and calm countryside becomes a frightening labyrinth of violence, power and murder.
The film shows how a couple of harmless poachers are turned by circumstance into killers, a circumstance needlessly engineered by the forces of reaction. The boys only want to steal a bit of grub, it's not as if the landlord would miss it; but the minute they step onto his land, they are chased by class-traitor labourers and then the police.
it would be wrong to call this Kafkaesque - they are clearly guilty - but this proliferation of law-defenders is nightmarish. They manage to use their ironically superior knowledge of someone else's land to evade capture; but eventually, like the Soviets at Stalingrad, sheer, faceless numbers win through. The momentum of the action, the harsh vibrancy of the sun-whipped landscape, and the gusto of the actors all create a sense of fun and exhiliration that is at the same time harrowing.
It would be pompous to ascribe social critique to such a venture, but there is something very, very wrong about the propertied classes and their stoolies here.
The film shows how a couple of harmless poachers are turned by circumstance into killers, a circumstance needlessly engineered by the forces of reaction. The boys only want to steal a bit of grub, it's not as if the landlord would miss it; but the minute they step onto his land, they are chased by class-traitor labourers and then the police.
it would be wrong to call this Kafkaesque - they are clearly guilty - but this proliferation of law-defenders is nightmarish. They manage to use their ironically superior knowledge of someone else's land to evade capture; but eventually, like the Soviets at Stalingrad, sheer, faceless numbers win through. The momentum of the action, the harsh vibrancy of the sun-whipped landscape, and the gusto of the actors all create a sense of fun and exhiliration that is at the same time harrowing.
It would be pompous to ascribe social critique to such a venture, but there is something very, very wrong about the propertied classes and their stoolies here.
Good chase and impacting violence
bob the moo3 March 2008
I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place but that's about it.
Two poachers are disturbed during their heinous crimes and make a break for it, closely pursued by the police and aggrieved farmers. Similar to Daring Daylight Robbery this film is a chase sequence between criminals and police. In some ways it is not as good but in others it is more memorable. Technically and viewing-wise I preferred Daylight Robbery as it had more grit to it and flowed better. Poaching is good as well but just not as good. Where it does stand out though is in the impact it has due to the level of violence in it. I have been watching lots of silent British shorts recently and this is the first one I have seen men shot dead it is a violent and sudden death and the film kicks the audience with several of them.
I cannot imagine how the audience reacted to this but I'm guessing it was impacting in the extreme. For this and the thrill of the chase it is worth seeing.
Two poachers are disturbed during their heinous crimes and make a break for it, closely pursued by the police and aggrieved farmers. Similar to Daring Daylight Robbery this film is a chase sequence between criminals and police. In some ways it is not as good but in others it is more memorable. Technically and viewing-wise I preferred Daylight Robbery as it had more grit to it and flowed better. Poaching is good as well but just not as good. Where it does stand out though is in the impact it has due to the level of violence in it. I have been watching lots of silent British shorts recently and this is the first one I have seen men shot dead it is a violent and sudden death and the film kicks the audience with several of them.
I cannot imagine how the audience reacted to this but I'm guessing it was impacting in the extreme. For this and the thrill of the chase it is worth seeing.
Fast-paced action movie
Tornado_Sam23 June 2017
Only four short films by Haggar & Sons survive today to be seen, and this is one of them. I can't say it's very elaborate--two poachers chased down by hunters and eventually caught--but there is quite a bit of action and even a panning shot at the beginning of the movie. The plot itself really isn't too sophisticated, but at only about three minutes it's hardly a waste of time.
One the biggest reasons this movie remains notable today is mainly because it was one of two films which inspired Edwin S. Porter's infamous "The Great Train Robbery" which was made the same year. I can't see how this is the case--there's really nothing to do with trains at all and apart from the shooting bits I couldn't really tell this. Either way, it's good for the time period and contains some nice scenery as well as some good action sequences.
One the biggest reasons this movie remains notable today is mainly because it was one of two films which inspired Edwin S. Porter's infamous "The Great Train Robbery" which was made the same year. I can't see how this is the case--there's really nothing to do with trains at all and apart from the shooting bits I couldn't really tell this. Either way, it's good for the time period and contains some nice scenery as well as some good action sequences.
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