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This five-minute short subject is a rather well orchestrated and a carefully constructed film for the era, although in another five years its film techniques would be hopelessly out of date. Still, for 1905, a film in seventeen scenes with three pans, some cutting to permit actors to jump out of a clinch and and much film running backwards -- to allow the eccentricity of action that the title refers to -- is a fairly worthwhile film.
The modern viewer will notice immediately that the burglars are clearly intended to be Chinese, a casually offered bit of racism that the film-goer of the era would accept without cavil. Doubtless their uncanny ability to leap casually to a second floor window -- an ability facilitated by shooting the actors jumping off the ledge and then running the film backwards -- would also be easily accepted, just as we accept so many of our preconceptions and cite their use in entertainment as proof of their reality.
The modern viewer will notice immediately that the burglars are clearly intended to be Chinese, a casually offered bit of racism that the film-goer of the era would accept without cavil. Doubtless their uncanny ability to leap casually to a second floor window -- an ability facilitated by shooting the actors jumping off the ledge and then running the film backwards -- would also be easily accepted, just as we accept so many of our preconceptions and cite their use in entertainment as proof of their reality.