Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene

Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene (1899)

*** (out of 4)

Fun Edison film is perhaps the first Western movie. We see a drunk walk into a bar, order a drink and then knock the hat off a man he thinks is passed out. The two then quickly get into a fight before the owner chases them off. As you can tell, we get a few early staples of the Western with the drunk, the fighting and we even have a bunch of guys sitting around playing cards. The movie runs 46-seconds and was shot in one take but it was surprisingly very entertaining and it actually tried to tell a story, a good four years before Edwin S. Porter and his THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. There's certainly nothing amazing here but it's an early part of cinema history that has been forgotten (but thankfully saved).

The western was among the first film genres, growing in status alongside the development of Hollywood's studio production system. There were only a few great silent westerns, although the best ones established some of the archetypes that are part of the genre even today. The earliest westerns (silent films without the sound of gunfire, horse's hoof beats, and the cattle trail) are gems of American history.

The earliest cowboy film may possibly be Thomas Edison's Cripple Creek Bar Room Scene (1898), perhaps it was the first filmed western with a plot (be it ever so thin). Shows the tap room of the Miners' Arms, a stout lady at the bar, and three men playing cards. Old toper with a silk hat asleep by the stove. Rough miner enters, barmaid serves him with Red Eye Whiskey and he proceeds to clean out the place. Barmaid takes a hand with a siphon of vichy, and bounces the intruder, with the help of the card players, who line up before the bar and take numerous drinks on the house.

This was another very brief Edison film that I discovered on the Internet Archive site. Supposedly the first movie western, Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene has no horses, no guns, and no fistfights. What it does have is the bar setting, three men playing cards, a drunk that's lying around, a barmaid, and another drunkard who comes in, gets a drink, threatens the other tramp to a fight, and then both get thrown out by the barmaid and those three card-playing men. Since this was approximately four years before the first story short The Great Train Robbery, the only interest this would be for anyone are those who have an interest in early cinema. On that note, Cripple Creek Bar-Room scene is at least worth a look.

It's really hard to rate an early film like "Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene" as it's only about a minute long and has very little in the way of plot.

In the film you see a rather simple set of a bar. A large bar matron is behind the counter pouring drinks. A couple of her customers get rowdy and she tosses them. End of film.

According to IMDb, this is probably the first film set in the West, though it's hard to call it a western per se. It also is perhaps the first transvestite film, as the bar matron is, according to IMDb, a guy dressed as a woman. Because of these things, it's of interest to film historians but the average viewer probably will find little of interest here.

This is terribly poor quality in almost every way, compared to the Lumiere brothers' output at a similar or earlier time - mis en scene apparently hadn't been invented yet, and the casting is questionable - the barmaid is a bloke in drag, right? - but at least it was attempting to have some narrative. However, whilst there are times when the elegant simplicity of a train arriving could be considered a superior production, this tale's got the slapstick (just watch that hat fly!) and the laughs.