The Little Train Robbery

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.

This film, made in 1905, is a parody of "The Great Train Robbery," from 1903. The main difference is that the robbers this time are children; therefore, everything occurs on a smaller-scale level. If you liked the first one, consider seeing this movie as well--it is entertaining as well as adventurous.

In spoofing his own hit movie, Edwin S. Porter produces a fairly creative parody that is worth seeing in itself, and that is perhaps even more interesting in historical terms. "The Little Train Robbery" is a re-working of the classic "The Great Train Robbery", with all the characters changed to children, and most of the settings miniaturized accordingly.

The story often parallels the original quite closely, and the more familiar you are with the original, the more similarities you can spot. So this is more than just one of the era's common remakes of the one-shot films that had become popular - it involved a detailed look at the original movie, with many choices as to how closely to follow it. It is certainly one of the most detailed examples of this kind to be found in the first decade or so of cinema history.

There are also times when, in contrast to the original, details are changed to play up the fact that the characters here are all children. As such, it is interesting in terms of the age-old debate as to how far behavior, especially of the young, might be influenced by the movies. Attitudes always change from one era to the next, and not always in the same direction. Attitudes in past eras were not always as simple as we may assume them to have been, and this is the kind of example that provides an interesting perspective on the issue.

Seen simply as a movie, this is not one of the best of its era, but it has some clever features, and it still works well enough. To the audiences of the time, to whom "The Great Train Robbery" would have been one of the very best movies they had ever seen, there would probably have been noticeable interest in this parody version.

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.

Little Train Robbery, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Porter remakes his own The Great Train Robbery but this time kids are playing the leads in a childish tale of acting out a robbery. While this certainly isn't as good as the film its based on it remains cute throughout with some nice stunts and scenery.

Seven Ages, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Cute little love story that shows a couple over seven ages in their lives from babies to old folks. There's not too much story here other than the two's love for one another but this comes off quite nicely.

White Caps, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Historically interesting film that deals with the vigilante group known as "The White Caps" who were known throughout Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Like the KKK, this group wore white pillows over their faces but instead of attacking race this group went after those who broke moral issues like beating their wives, harming children and other crimes that make for a bad community. This film shows them going after a man who has just beaten his wife.