Stop Thief!

This is a pretty entertaining trifle from the earliest days of the movies. It's a simple comic chase film, but it has good energy and a couple of funny ideas, with technical aspects that are of good quality for its time. It's one of a handful of James Williamson's films that survive, and like a number of the others it has a good dose of wit along with basic movie-making skill.

For all that some of the plot developments are pretty goofy, it is rather well-conceived in itself. The manic situation builds nicely, starting with the theft being committed, and going on from there. Including the dogs in the chase was a good idea that works well, and it provides an amusing take on crime, justice, and punishment. It probably also took some real ingenuity (and perhaps a little luck) to have the sequence with the dogs come out so well.

This is one of the very earliest 'chase films', and it has a lot of energy, plus a couple of good gag ideas that would hold up well enough even if they were used in a movie of a somewhat later era. It's not that hard to tell how old this movie is, but it still works pretty well, and is certainly worth seeing for those who enjoy watching these early movies.

No sooner do I write a review in which I cast doubts on the idea that the first chase film was made in 1903, but I look at this amusing James Williamson comedy from 1901, in which a tramp steals a leg of lamb and is pursued in three scenes by an irate housewife and a pack of assorted dogs.

I've seen this movie before, which causes me repeat two things: first, be very careful when you proclaim something as a "first" in film history; and second, rely on no opinions save your own. Other peoples' opinions may give you an interesting idea, an interpretation that you might not have thought of on your own, that you realize is a pretty good one, but your esthetic is the proper guide to what is good in movies.

By the way, the housewife in this movie is quite obviously a man.

The crime chase film was a popular genre in the early history of film, and it perhaps began here, with James Williamson's "Stop Thief!" Many of these films, including this one, are notable for their fluid succession of shots to create (at least at the time) an exciting continuity of action. Demonstration of this can be seen in three 1903 crime chase films also included on Kino and the BFI's programs--they being "A Daring Daylight Robbery", "A Desperate Poaching Affray" and "The Great Train Robbery". Later, D.W. Griffith expanded upon this genre with his last-minute rescue films, such as in "The Girl and Her Trust" (1912). Also, Williamson created one of the earliest comedy chase films, "Our New Errand Boy" (1905). Pathé and Keystone comedies, notably, but also just about every other studio, continued the tradition of chase comedies past the early stages of cinema history. By the 1920s, there was still Buster Keaton making some exceptionally funny slapstick chases, including the one in "Cops" (1922).

"Stop Thief!" is a three-shot film and appears primitive compared to the chase films that followed it. It involves a vagabond stealing a loaf of bread; he's then pursued by the baker, or deliveryman, he stole the bread from. Some dogs also enter the chase. The thief hides in a barrel, but unsuccessfully, as his pursuer pulls him out and begins assaulting him. The continuity editing interestingly doesn't follow the modern rule of the axis of action. In the first shot, the characters exit the frame at the left side in the background. They enter the second shot from the left, which they had just exited from. After exiting the second shot at the right side, they then enter the third shot from the right. Following the modern continuity rules of direction across the screen, that's all backwards. In 1901, however, the rules hadn't been invented--because film pioneers like Williamson had only just begun to establish them. Another 1901 movie made by Williamson, "Fire!", obeys this rule of continuity, as do his later films "An Interesting Story" (1904) and "Our New Errand Boy". In addition, Michael Chanan ("The Dream That Kicks") makes an interesting suggestion that in "Stop Thief!" Williamson was following theatrical continuity.

The other continuity element here is the direct cuts, which have continued to be the preferred transition between shots throughout the history of film. That's a given nowadays, but Williamson and other pioneer filmmakers were faced with conscious decisions on such elementary matters back then when there wasn't an established history of film grammar.

Characters, set-up, and pay-off: a hobo walks along acting like he minds his own business, and steals a tray from a waiter walking by him. He runs with the food or whatever's in his hands, and the waiter, a dog and others give chase. There is a conclusion but I won't spoil it (duh). It's rough around the edges, but what might you expect for 1901? There's just straight-forward storytelling here, or at least detailing an incident. There isn't exactly things like characterization or much in the way of inventive techniques, but it doesn't need that - in one minute it gets in, tells its story, and gets out on a high (rather violent) note. I liked it a lot.

This is us short film is one of the earliest, if not the very first, chase films. It is very well edited and has a quite good pace, besides the lovely dogs and the smart fate for the stolen object. An important film in the history of cinema, also remarkable for being interesting and comprehensible without a single lettering or subheading.