Directing
Edwin S. Porter
Born April 21, 1870 · Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA
Died April 30, 1941 · aged 71
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Influenced by both the "Brighton school" and the story films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In …
Known For
The Great Train Robbery · 1903The Great Train Robbery
★ 7.01903
MovieWesternCrime
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
The Cord of Life · 1909The Cord of Life
★ 3.71909
MovieDramaCrime
Antonine, a worthless, good-for-nothing scoundrel, demands money of his cousin Galora, an energetic, provident husband and father. His demands are met with a positive rebuff, and when he becomes insistent be is forcibly ejected by Galora. As he leaves the tenement he vows to get even, and lies in wait until Galora has gone out on business. Climbing to the fifth floor, on which the Galoras live, he watches his chance, which comes when Mrs. Galora goes for an instant to visit a neighbor on the same floor. Darting into the apartment and raising the window he perceives the awful result of a drop to the ground, five stories below, and so evolves a plan that is dastardly in the extreme. Taking the infant child from the cradle, and placing it in a basket he lets it out with a short rope, the end of which he secures by letting the sash down on it, so that to raise the window would precipitate the baby to destruction.
Buster's Joke on Papa (II) · 1903Buster's Joke on Papa (II)
★ 3.01903
MovieComedy
Buster Brown plays a practical joke on his mother, persuading her to to put her hands into a pan of lobsters, then puts a bunch of them in his father’s bed. They made two versions of this gag. One where a lobster is pinching his butt, the other not. This one does NOT have a lobster on his backside.
The Night Before Christmas · 1905The Night Before Christmas
★ 6.11905
MovieFantasyFamily
On Christmas Eve, Santa feeds his reindeer and loads his sleigh, before going on his journey to deliver toys to the children of the world.
A Winter Straw Ride · 1906A Winter Straw Ride
★ 5.21906
MovieComedy
Two groups of young women get into a pair of horse-drawn carts, and go off for a straw ride through the snowy streets. As they pass by a group of children, the children throw snowballs at the riders, and they and other persons begin to join in the fun. Then one of the carts tips on its side, spilling some of its occupants into the snow. Everyone soon decides that they enjoy playing in the snow even more than riding.
Hearts Adrift · 1914Hearts Adrift
1914
MovieRomance
A lost film. A man and a woman are shipwrecked on a desert island. It doesn't take long before they fall in love and, figuring that they would never see civilization again, declare themselves married and eventually have a child. One day, however...
Niobe · 1915Niobe
1915
MovieComedyDrama
The statue of Niobe comes to life through the dream of a hen-pecked old man.
The Eternal City · 1915The Eternal City
1915
MovieDrama
Leone, a Papal guard, is devastated when his wife drowns herself after mistakenly thinking that he had abandoned her. He turns over his son David to be brought up by nuns, then enters a monastery. David is brought to London and is raised to be a beggar and thief until he is rescued by Dr. Roselli, an Italian political refugee, who raises David with his daughter Donna Roma. Years later David gets heavily involved in Italian politics and incurs the enmity of the corrupt Italian Prime Minister, which leads him to discover the hidden secrets of his family's past--and present.
Filmography
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