The Little Train Robbery

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.

Edwin S. Porter made one of the most important early films "The Great Train Robbery". Some have referred to it as the first full-length film, though Georges Méliès made his "Voyage Dans Le Lune" the same year and a couple other films also claim to be the first. Regardless, it was a huge milestone in film history and was the first great American western. So, it's not at all surprising that Porter would seek to capitalize on this success--though I am surprised it took him two full years to get to "The Little Train Robbery".

"The Little Train Robbery" is a parody of his previous film--and it IS unusual for a person to parody their own work. In this case, you have a similar plot but it's acted by kids. And, as they are kids, they ride ponies and the train is an amusement park type they'd have for the young kids. It's a clever idea BUT it's also an idea that runs thin--even when full-length meant 10-20 minutes as it did in 1905. In many ways, it's a lot like the much later (and dreadfully awful) "The Terror of Tiny Town"--the first all-midget western! So is it worth your time? Not especially. But, if you love early films and have already seen "The Great Train Robbery", it's worth a look.

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.

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.

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.