This film is part of Free
Sports on Board Ship
An improvised deck game to pass the time en voyage
Overview
Advertised in an 1897 catalogue of the Prestwich Manufacturing Company - a Tottenham firm specialising cinematographic devices - among a collection of 'New English Subjects', this short film has all the hallmarks of a typical piece of early film. An excitable crowd gathers around a singular piece of action: someone repeatedly falls on their bum! What else do you need to make an audience happy? This game might have been improvised to while away some time on a long voyage, but happily this film preserves it in all its oddity.
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