The Man and His Bottle

The demon drink has dreadful consequences in this fantastical early trick film.

The dreadful consequences of the 'demon drink' are visualised in this barmy trick film, which shows a hungover man bedevilled by apparitions of devils, dancing liquor bottles and crawling vermin (real rats cleverly superimposed in negative), before being dragged down to a cellar where further horrors await...

Contemporary audiences would have been familiar both with the film's temperance message and its cast of fantastical creatures, which belong to the stage pantomime and were much copied in early English and French film.