Underplayed Gems

The Haunted Castle (1897)

The Haunted Castle poster
Directed by
George Albert Smith
Genre
fantasy film, horror film, silent film
Country
United States
Runtime
1 min
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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.

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How it feels

This is a lost 1897 silent short film that may have been made by Georges Melies. It shows a haunted castle, likely with supernatural events. The exact director is uncertain because records confuse a British film with a French one.

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What happens

The Haunted Castle is a hypothetical lost 1897 short silent film, attributed in some filmographies to the British film pioneer George Albert Smith, but which may be a misidentification of a French film by Georges Méliès. Many of Smith's films show an interest in supernatural themes, such as Photographing a Ghost (1898), The Haunted Picture Gallery (1899), and his major short comedy Mary Jane's Mishap (1903); he also filmed a version of the Faust legend. A film called The Haunted Castle, supposedly released by Smith in December 1897, was attributed to him in the 1973 edition of The British Film Catalogue. However, the film historian John Barnes, in his book-length study of the year 1897 in British film, concluded that the title referred to a Méliès film that had been referenced in England since May of that year. Méliès's 1897 film Le Château hanté was indeed released in Britain as The Haunted Castle. (A slightly earlier film of his, Le Manoir du diable, made in the winter of 1896–7, is also known as The Haunted Castle after its American release title.) (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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