Comin' Thro the Rye

A girl wins her rival's fiancé with a fake marriage announcement.

A scientist dreams of prehistoric monsters. He awakes in a cavern. A dinosaur chases him, even though he tries to shoot it with his revolver. The chase continues onto the surface. The professor meets a group of prehistoric women, who flee when other monsters appear. The professor's wife finds him sleeping in the laboratory, surrounded by fossils, and wakes him with water from a siphon. Its generally believed to be the first film depiction of dinosaurs, here accomplished through the use of simple pantomime costumes. This short film was only viewable at the BFI until youtuber coldcrashpictures paid money to release it digitally on his channel.

'Devon. Farming brothers give home to orphan shepherdess evicted for suspected immorality.' (British Film Catalogue)

A crofter's daughter has a child by an outlaw and is condemned to death when it is stolen by a midwife's mad daughter.

Actuality film documenting the funeral of Queen Victoria in February 1901. The footage captures the solemn processions and ceremonies that marked the end of her long reign, offering a rare moving-image record of a major state occasion. Widely circulated internationally, the film reflects both the global reach of British newsreel subjects and the early power of cinema to record historic events.

Young heiress Margaret Yeoland is found unconscious on the Devonshire moors by a disillusioned author, Denis Marlowe. She tells him she has run away from her family, but is reluctant to reveal the full story. Intent on concealing her identity from her pursuers, Denis coerces her into marrying him. But when the body of Margaret's missing father is discovered, it leads Denis to suspect his wife of murder.

Anson Dyer's animation of the age-old fable, made for Hepworth.

Filmed from the front of a steam launch in a late Victorian summer, this film offers a glimpse of our 19th century ancestors enjoying their leisure time. The River Thames is crowded with pleasure boats as we glide under Henley Bridge. Ladies in white lace dresses recline under parasols as gentlemen with impressive moustaches take the oars. But even in this antiquated idyllic scene, advertising hoardings on the riverbank try to persuade the moneyed classes to part with their cash. The technique of placing the camera on a moving vehicle, here a boat, was one of the most popular film effects in the very early cinema period. The waterside panorama method employed here was particularly popular for travelogues. Cecil Hepworth, who made this film, was convinced at the time that the cinema would prove to be used mostly for news reporting, but said that work such as this "showed some slight perception of scenic value". That makes this almost an early art film. -BFI

'Lady introduces wounded cobbler to Minister of Pensions, who makes him gift from King's Fund.' (British Film Catalogue)

A boy breaks his sister's doll and it mends, grows, tears him up and eats him.

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.

A man fakes an engagement to a typist to please his rich aunt.

A man preparing for a trip encounters a series of mysterious problems.

As the camera looks down an open road, a horse and carriage approaches, and passes by to one side of the field of view. Soon afterwards, an automobile comes up the road, straight towards the camera. As it gets nearer, the occupants start to wave frantically, but can a collision be avoided?