Just perfect...

Excellent, a Must See

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is very definitely not filmed by William Kennedy Dickson sho had left Edison by this time for Mutoscope but rather by William Heise. Crissie Sheridan seems to have been Edison's replacement for Annabelle Whitford Moore who had joined Kennedy at Mutoscope making for them amongst others a new variant of the Serpentine Dance called the Flag Dance where she wrapped herself in the national colours. This "serpentine dance in national colours" was the Edison response but was obviously originally hand-coloured so the full effect is rather lost in the available black and white copy which comes from the Library of Congress paper print collection.

Crissie Sheridan (1897)You could show this 30 second movie to a million different people and I'm sure all but perhaps one would walk away not knowing what the big deal was. After all, there's no plot, no acting and no drama so why watch someones serpentine dance? Well, as a lover of these early movies, what's so fascinating about these early pictures is that without them, we probably wouldn't know who Crissie Sheridan was. I mean, I had never heard of her but by being able to watch this movie I can learn about her, see her work and just know that she was someone popular back in the day that has been forgotten through time. Even though she's forgotten, I can't help but wonder what she'd think about someone watching this film 118 years after it was made.

I assume the name Crissie Sheridan was not a total unknown 115 years ago with early French-born and English-speaking film pioneer William K.L. Dickson using the dancer's name as the title for the film, while we, usually, in these early short films that involve some kind of sports activity or dancing or music usually get a description of the activity or the name of the profession.In any case, we see the obviously talented dancer Crissie Sheridan perform her routine with grace and elegance. The flowing of the serpentine in the air is surely a beautiful sight, which would have been even better with stunning colors or beautiful music to it, i.e. the way Dickson most likely actually saw it, but even silent and in black and white this short film is far from being a total miss.

The film consists totally of dancer Crissie Sheridan holding on to sticks with her long, flowing white costume draped over them. She performs a dance, flicking and twirling the costume around and around. By doing this, it is very difficult to actually see Ms. Sheridan's face. The film was created in 1897 by the Edison Company in the Black Maria Studio and lasts for about 15 seconds, but it is an enjoyable 15 seconds. Even though the movie is over 100 years old, it still has the power to engage you and fill you with awe. I loved every second of it. I discovered this film not to long ago, but after looking at some photographs of it, I knew i had to watch it. Edison made several films like this, showing dancers (Carmencita) (1894) or boxers Men Boxing (1891) and most of his films up until about 1900 did not tell a story. They were simply images of people going about their day-to-day work, dancing, kissing or racing each other.