The '?' Motorist (1906)
- Directed by
- Walter R. Booth
- Genre
- fantasy film, comedy film, silent film, science fiction film
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Runtime
- 3 min
- Rating
- 6.5 of 10 from 63 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A man gets into a car and drives off on a wild ride. He goes up into the sky and around the moon, then crashes into a house. The film uses visual tricks to show these impossible events.
whimsicalplayfulfast-pacedinventiveslapstickdreamlikelightheartedmischievous
What happens
The '?' Motorist is a 1906 British silent comedy trick film, commonly called "The Mad Motorist" or "Questionmark Motorist" and directed by Walter R. Booth. Released in October 1906, the film is "one of the last films that W.R. Booth made for the producer-inventor R.W. Paul," and, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "looks forward to the more elaborate fantasies that Booth would make for Charles Urban between 1907 and 1911, as well as drawing on a wide range of the visual tricks that Booth had developed over the preceding half-decade." Booth later remade the film as The Automatic Motorist in 1911. The film has also been compared to the work of Georges Méliès and "The Impossible Voyage." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
The 400 Tricks of the Devil (1906)
The Flying House (1921)
An Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903)
The Automatic Motorist (1911)
The Hilarious Posters (1906)
The Impossible Voyage (1904)
The Duke's Good Joke (1908)
The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship (1905)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.