Il y a un dieu pour les ivrognes

The Good Luck Of A Souse (1908)

aka Il y a un dieu pour les ivrognes

This film from George Melies is sadly one that's only available in fragments. The film starts off with a title card stating that a drunk man has just thrown his family out a window. We see a couple of them landing on the ground and then we go back to the room where the drunk is now trying to kill himself. Just by watching this you can tell that the film is missing some of the opening as well as some of the ending. I'm not exactly sure how much is missing but what we've got remaining is right around four-minutes worth of footage. I can't say what the complete film was like but it really doesn't appear to be anything overly special. I'm going to say that this was an attempted comedy but I thought what jokes were available here were quite flat. This includes the big suicide scene that just doesn't work and I also wasn't too impressed with the special effect of the people falling from the window. This here is certainly for Melies completest only.

Apparently a variation on LA CHUTE DE CINQUIEME ETAGE, this one is about a drunk who throws his wife and family out of the window -- at least apparently since the first half is not known to survive. Then, in sorrow, he tries to hang himself.

Although Melies is primary remembered for his flights of fantasy and feats of magic, he turned out a fair number of serious pieces, including a series of shorts about the Dreyfus Affair in 1899; and some of his fantasies had serious undertones to them. It's interesting to see this straight-out piece of melodrama.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

When the story begins, a wife and then daughter are tossed out of an apartment window! Amazingly, neither is killed. Soon the scene switches to the room where the would be assassin, the drunkard father, is. He's a mess...and distraught over his actions. So he tries to kill himself but folks arrive in time to save this violent man. The ending is simply inexplicable...and you have to see the very end to know what I mean.

This film has folks flying out windows and a guy hanging himself, albeit not very well. It's the sort of violent adult fare that most people back in 1908 would have enjoyed...but certainly not the kiddies! Well worth seeing but the ending is simply inexplicable and awful...making no sense at all. Because of this bad ending AND the drunkard's overacting, I cannot score this one any higher.