The Medium Exposed? Or, A Modern Spiritualistic Seance

Faking the ability to contact the dead proves to be a big mistake for one Edwardian charlatan.

This ingenious six-minute saga sees a gathering of affluent suburban Spiritualists almost duped by a con artist whose elaborate ‘séance’ goes awry. While his fright-wigged assistant escapes, the phoney medium is manhandled into a trunk, thrown down a hill and paraded along the local high street as a warning to others: woe betide those who feign the power to contact departed loved ones. The RW Paul company was a pioneer of the early 'trick film'; the neat tricks seen here include the lowering of the light and the disembodied ghost.