The Extraordinary Waiter (1902)

Directed by

Walter R. Booth

Genre

comedy film, silent film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1 min

Rating

4.8 of 10 from 5 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.

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How it feels

A brutish colonialist tries and fails to destroy a blackfaced waiter. The film plays as a slapstick comedy but its racial elements make it uncomfortable to watch today.

comiclightheartedfrustratinguncomfortableplayfulearly-cinemashortstagey

What happens

The Extraordinary Waiter (AKA: Diner and Waiter Comic) is a 1902 British silent comic trick film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a brutish colonialist failing to destroy a blackfaced waiter. The film "makes for somewhat uncomfortable viewing," but according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "it's just about possible to read this as a metaphor for the rather more widespread frustrations arising from British colonial rule (the Boer War was still a current issue), though it seems unlikely that this was intentional on Booth's part." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Restitution inattendue (1902)
• The Frustrated Elopement (1902)
• Le conférencier distrait (1902)
• Burlesque Attack on a Settler's Cabin (1900)
• The Big Swallow (1901)
• The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901)
• Caught in a Cabaret (1914)
• Ginger Seeks a Situation (1914)
• More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.