This film is part of Free
The "?" Motorist
The lengths that some people will go to, just to avoid a speeding ticket… in this case to Saturn and back.
Overview
This eccentrically-titled Robert Paul comedy - made by trick specialist WR Booth - is one of the most iconic of early British films. As Cecil Hepworth did in Explosion of a Motor Car (1900), Booth uses a stop-and-substitute gag, using dummy body parts, for the sequence when a car runs over a policeman. Booth, however, takes it further. As the policeman reassembles himself (Terminator-style!) and pursues the car to a dead end, it drives straight up a building and up to the stars, where it drives around a very Georges Melies-style celestial scene before dropping back to earth and the magistrates' court.
Related
Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge
Non-Fiction 1896 1 mins Silent Location: Blackfriars Br
Top-hatted pedestrians and horse-drawn traffic pass over Blackfriars Bridge in London
Aberdeen University Quarter Centenary Celebrations Aberdeen University Quarter Centenary Celebrations
Non-Fiction 1906 32 mins Silent Location: Aberdeen
Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open new buildings at Marischal College, Aberdeen
Drat That Boy! Drat That Boy!
Comedy 1904 2 mins Silent
A boy being supervised by his grandmother sees a chance for mischief
Extraordinary Cab Accident Extraordinary Cab Accident
Trick film 1903 1 mins Silent
A comic traffic incident
China O'Brien: The Reunion China O'Brien: The Reunion
Documentary 2024 60 mins
Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton and Keith Cooke reunite three decades on from the groundbreaking martial arts classic.
Women in Action Panel Discussion Women in Action Panel Discussion
Inside Film 2024 28 mins
Action Xtreme - the UK's leading action film studio - hosts this panel discussion with four leading women in action cinema - Soo Cole, Jo Rolison, Jadey Duffield and Ioanna Karavela.
Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 24 mins
Daniel Kokotajlo talks to Nia Childs about Starve Acre, his folk horror about a couple digging deep into grief in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 30 mins
Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.
Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell
Documentary 2024 42 mins
Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.
Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels
Short documentary 2024 12 mins
Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.