Only four short films by Haggar & Sons survive today to be seen, and this is one of them. I can't say it's very elaborate--two poachers chased down by hunters and eventually caught--but there is quite a bit of action and even a panning shot at the beginning of the movie. The plot itself really isn't too sophisticated, but at only about three minutes it's hardly a waste of time.One the biggest reasons this movie remains notable today is mainly because it was one of two films which inspired Edwin S. Porter's infamous "The Great Train Robbery" which was made the same year. I can't see how this is the case--there's really nothing to do with trains at all and apart from the shooting bits I couldn't really tell this. Either way, it's good for the time period and contains some nice scenery as well as some good action sequences.

"A Desperate Poaching Affray" is an early and innovative chase and crime film. This early cinema genre of crime chases seems to have been invented in Britain. James Williamson's "Stop Thief!" (1901) is the earliest I know of that could be attributed to the genre. By 1903, British filmmakers made "A Daring Daylight Robbery", "Robbery of the Mail Coach" and this film, all of which heavily influenced the adoption of the genre across the Atlantic, most notably influencing "The Great Train Robbery" made later that year. "Desperate Poaching Affray" was an especially internationally popular subject: 480 prints were sold and more dupes were made in the U.S. (Michael Chanan, "Economic Conditions in Early Cinema" in "Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative") Comedic chase films that came later would use the film techniques and grammar invented in these films.The chase in this film, law enforcement chasing after poachers (and they all have guns), is clumsy and the actors are noticeably amateurs, but what's exceptional about this picture, for its time, is its continuity editing, as well as some novel camera placement. It only consists of seven shots and lasts for only two to three minutes. Yet, there is some panning, untraditional camera placement and staging--where we see the actors approach and pass right by the camera in depth--and the earliest extended use of reverse-angle shots I know of (there are brief earlier examples, such as in "Attack on a China Mission" (1900)).The first shot throws us right into the action. The poachers attempt to hide in some brush. The authorities approach from off-screen and into the frame. A pan allows the camera to follow the action as the chase begins. The second and third shots, as well as the third and fourth, are reverse-angle takes, where the pursued and pursuers run by the camera and into off-screen space, followed by a cut, with a framing of the action from the opposite, 180-degree angle to follow the action. The last three cuts and camera placements follow the action in a fluid continuous manner, with the direction of the chase following the rules of the axis of action. The exceptional, modern continuity of this film--the harmony of the action, camera placement and editing--was unrivaled for years to come.

While it is true that in the 1890s and 1900s that the films were often very, very short and very mundane, this did not mean that films HAD to be that way--Georges Méliès and the Pathé Brothers were making some very imaginative films with scripts, sets and lots of imagination. So, by comparison, this film comes up very, very short. The film is all too brief--with some guys catching and roughing up some poachers--and that's all!! In fact, the film is so short and uninspired that I can only see it of being much value to film historians and lovers of dull films. It just SHOULD have been better in 1903 and showed that a gap between quality films and the rest was increasing at the time.

There's a lot of action in this short feature that makes it worth watching even though it is pretty unrefined. The "Desperate Poaching Affray" begins when a couple of game poachers are spotted, and then the chase is on. Quite a bit happens after that, and it packs a lot of activity into just a few minutes of running time. The emphasis is certainly on the action, as most of the actors just race around without trying too hard to make their actions seem believable. But there's no denying that you want to see how it comes out, and anyway, most of the so-called action movies made today have even lower acting quality and plausibility standards, without being nearly so efficient as this one is in terms of actual entertainment value.