The Monster
The Monster
NR | 14 August 1903 (USA)
The Monster Trailers

An Egyptian prince has lost his beloved wife and he has sought a dervish who dwells at the base of the sphinx.

Reviews
Hitchcoc

A couple of Egyptians stand in front of the Sphinx, probably at Giza. The one is missing his wife and prays to the gods to return her. He has her skeleton and, sure enough, through magic, she is returned. Her skeleton regains its body. But things don't always turn out the way we want, especially when the gods are involved. It has a dramatic conclusion.

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Horst in Translation ([email protected])

"Le monstre" or "The Monster" is a French 2-minute short film from 1903 and the year already tells everybody that this is silent and black-and-white. And despite being almost 115 years old, you can say "only 115 years old" when it comes to Méliès as he had made many films already at this point. And looking at how experienced and prolific he was by the early 20th century, this one here is a disappointment. It's virtually impossible to understand the story. good for him if he wanted to include a plot here, but it was not a success as the audience barely could understand it. In the end, everything that stays memorable is the Sphing statue in the background. This is far from enough though and nothing better than or superior to what Méliès showed us several years earlier in terms of set decorations. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

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Michael_Elliott

Monster, The (1903) *** (out of 4) aka Monstre, Le This here seems to be an early take on the Frankenstein story and was made seven years before Edison's official version. An Egyptian prince has recently lost his wife so he brings a man with her coffin to try and bring her from the dead. This is a fun little film that Melies manages to bring a lot of his magic to the screen as well as an overall playful attitude. When they pull the skeleton out of the coffin and start doing their magic, the skeleton begins to dance in a very playful matter before the Prince tries to her one final kiss. The magic tricks are pretty good with the last one being the best where the Prince goes to give his wife a kiss but something goes wrong. The back of the stage is done up in an Egyptian manor and looks quite nice. Fans of the horror genre will certainly want to check this one out since there are various early horror elements. The film includes spoken narration.

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meddlecore

The marvelous Melies magically makes a monster move and frolic about, showing us his mastery with a few great special effects from his era. He makes a skeleton appear and gives it life after which it proceeds to get up and run around. The monster then melts until only the head remains before growing to twice the height of Melies the magician. After returning to normal size the neck sprouts from it's body like a flower would the earth, which for 1903 i find to be a spectacular special effect. Melies the great illusionist then amazes us by turning the monster into a beautiful woman and of course adding his signature, by making her disappear! Another wonderful film by early-cinema's most innovative and entertaining performer!

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