Le roi des dollars

Segundo de Chomón made a lot of films. Some were quite original, some were also blatant copies of the work of Georges Méliès. While I wouldn't put "King of Dollars" in the category of blatant copies, it clearly is inspired by Méliès' work. Georges Méliès had been a stage magician and brought much of his act to his films. And, by stopping and restarting the camera, he could effect tricks that wowed the audiences back near the beginning of films. So, wanting to cash in on a good thing, Pathé Brothers had Chomón copy the style or outright copy the films of Méliès. In this case, by stopping and starting the camera (often but not always seamlessly), he makes a magician appear to bring money out of no where. And, at the end, he makes his friend barf money (I wish I could do that!). The most innovative thing about this film is that it uses closeups when others were filming their subjects much farther away. Overall, mildly amusing.

One of Segundo de Chomon's earlier efforts for Pathe to take away Melies's market, "The King of Dollars" is a very simple trick film with some interesting and newer ideas and tricks. For one, the thing is shot entirely as a closeup, something which was pretty rare in filmmaking until Griffith came along. Additionally, the print surviving is beautifully colorized, without a doubt by stencil-coloring and has amazingly realistic skin tones and golds.

While not all the tricks here are done very well, the edits towards the beginning are about as seamless as it gets. A magician's hand makes money appear out of mid-air, in the sort of sleight of hand trick you'd see real magicians doing, but here is done through stop-motion. He also makes some of the money disappear, again mostly by sleight of hand but also using a candle to melt the money into thin air (in a dissolving technique also pioneered by Melies). When the other guy spits more money out of his mouth, the tricks here are pretty obvious and probably could have been done more seamlessly had Melies been doing the editing. It is still a creative, new example and at least feels a lot different than most other trick movies of the time.

This early Segundo de Chomon short does what Melies never did in his many elaborate trick films, despite his history as a stage magician -- show the sort of close-up magic that stage magicians hold is the toughest sort of magicianry to perform, the sort that can be done for an audience of one sitting right next to you.

In this instance, he sets the stage well, showing you just the magician's hands against a black field as coins are made to appear and disappear from seemingly nowhere. In addition, the print held by the Netherlands Film Museum is an elaborately colored one, doubtless through the stencil method. This serves to distract the eye of the viewer for a bit.... but while you may figure out where the sleight of hand begins and the screen magic ends, you can never quite see it being done.

This films appears to have been originally made in Spain by Segundo Chomón and Adrià Gual for the Sala Mercé in arcelona wheer it firs appeared as Ells duros que no passan on 11 February 1905. The "coins that do not pass" were what was known in Spain at the time as "duros sevilsnas" , false coins that circulated widely at the period. The film therefore has nothing really to do with Méliès but is a satirical joke based on a well-known magic routine. It is possible that the film was re-edited in France in which case this would almost certainly have been done by Gaston Velle, who had himself been known for performing this particular trick as a magician in 1903. Velle certainly directed La Poule auz oeufs d'or for Pathé this same year which was also based on a film, La gallina dels ous d'or or La gallina de los huevos d'oro, made by Chomón for the Sala Mercé. (18 May 1905) and which includes Chomón's companion, later his wife, actress Julienne Mathieu in its cast . It was not until Velle left Pathé to go to Cines in Italy in 1906 that Chomón himself would come to Paris (summoned by Charles Pathé in person to replace the "traitor") and begin making films there himself for Pathé.