Cupid's Pranks

This short feature is somewhat uneven, with some good moments that make up in part for its slower stretches. It also features some special effects involving the Cupid character, with some of them working pretty well, and others being a little too rough around the edges. The image of Cupid is perhaps overly cute, but it is balanced by the wryness of some of the story developments.

The pace moves somewhat irregularly from the first. One early scene is pretty good, with Cupid falling asleep and getting scolded for it, and then being sent off to do his job. There is a fairly lengthy sequence that uses some special effects to show Cupid flying over a city. There are a good number of defects in this part of the print, making it hard to tell just how well made it was. This is followed by another slow sequence that doesn't really develop the story.

The main part of the story finally starts when Cupid identifies a couple to unite. It's mostly played for laughs, with a couple of good gags mixed in with other, more routine material. It features some surprisingly cynical moments, which do balance out the tone of the movie somewhat. The closing sequence avoids predictability, but again this part of the print has deteriorated badly over time, rendering many of the details too obscure for it to have its full effect.

The deterioration to the print is not, of course, a fault of the film-makers. But the original movie seems pretty uneven to begin with. It does have some good moments that make it worth seeing, but overall it is not really all that good.

Films in 1908 tended to be VERY short...often less than five minutes long. So, when you watch "Cupid's Pranks", keep this in mind...it's short but so were nearly all of the movies of the day.

When the story begins, Cupid is in trouble because instead of making more arrows and spreading love, he's falling asleep. I'm not sure which god caught him and spanked him...perhaps it was supposed to be Zeus.

Soon Cupid flies down to Earth in search of couples to unite. In this case, he goes to a ball and sees a woman all alone...and soon he lassos a man and drags him to meet her...all the which time no one (except for the woman) can see Cupid. What's next? See the film.

I found this one on YouTube and it is always surprising what you see posted. For the most part, the film is in very good shape for 1908 but there are portions late in the film which are overexposed...though it's still watchable. Very good sets for 1908 and a nice flying Cupid...though some of the double-exposure scenes are rough and very dated.