The Little Train Robbery

The first parody in the history of cinema. A remake of the very first Western, 'The great train robbery', but here children are the outlaws. A funny idea: a little train robbery. Many small objects (short talvez, ponies....) and obviously that train contribute to an amusing outcome. However, I did miss a remake of the famous shooting scene.

Edwin S. Porter, who also directed the groundbreaking Great Train Robbery in 1903, returns here to the same story but changes all of the villains from adults into children. It's not a bad idea (beating Alan Parker by some 70 years) and works surprisingly well, not only as a cute parody of the original film but as a tale in its own right of desperate villains breaking the law and attempting to evade capture.

The film opens with the crook's mastermind issuing instructions to the gang. We then see them riding off to the railway line where they lay a few planks over the line then lie in wait for their victims, the passengers of one of those miniature trains for kids. Having knocked out the driver - who later recovers and wanders into shot when it appears he wasn't supposed to as he looks at the camera for a moment before diving to the ground - the robbers relieve the tiny passengers of their valuables and head back to their hideout where they share out the spoils - bags of sweets. Unfortunately, they don't get much chance to sample their booty before the police appear on the scene and give chase.

Although this is quite a good film for its time it still falls far short of the kind of standards that would prevail only a few years later. Editing is confined to changing shot when the predefined action has been completed rather than to create excitement or tension, and there is no use of close or medium shots.

I liked this spoof. It makes me feel weird knowing that all of those children are dead since the movie was recorded in 1905. One day I'll be dead and someone will look at my review.

Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" met with great success, being the first western and one of the first 'full length' (by the standards of the time) movies. So, two years later he thought to parody it, by changing the bandits to children who commit crimes. Thus, "The Little Train Robbery" was made. While the idea is clever at least, there is no medium closeup of the bandit firing at the camera at the end and because of the lack of this, it has not become nearly as well known.

If you've seen the original movie before then you're probably already familiar with the plot: a train is robbed, bandits are caught. The thing isn't even much of a western at all like the original because of the lack of violence (no gun shots are fired and the closest they get is one kid hitting the engineer over the head) and a great deal of it is devoted to the chase scenes, which go on a little too long. It isn't a bad film by any means but lacks the action and attention-holding pacing of its predecessor. Worthwhile for fans of "The Great Train Robbery", but if you haven't seen that yet then you'll have to watch it before giving this one a go.

I have to be honest: I'm a huge Edwin Porter fan and I loved his 1903 "The Great Train Robbery." The groundbreaking film had crisp elliptical editing, short, unfolding scenes and convincing special effects. Here, two years later, in a parody of his earlier success, Porter's craftsmanship has slipped several notches.

The idea of using teenagers as the robbers/cops was clever. Beyond that, however, the technical aspects of "The Little Train Robbery" is inferior to the production of the movie it's making fun of. Porter's scenes here are excessively long and drawn out. In his earlier effort where he clipped the chase scenes in compressing the action, in the 1905 version, the camera lingers as the long string of individuals runs by the camera--including the last person trailing the posse. After several camera placements showing the chase, the viewer can be excused for eliciting a string of yawns.

Historically, the LTR is worth watching since it is the very first parody, an imitated work that is intended to showcase a comedic side of a very serious event the 1903 version highlighted. For that the LTR is of utmost importance for anyone who is remotely interested in the origins of cinema.