In 1894, while working in the closed film studio "Black Mary", William Dixon created a number of short films for displaying them in the kinetoscope - an apparatus for watching movies. Experimenting with light, exposition, plans, the engineer came to experiments with animals (and in relation to early cinema, this is how his activity can be called). It is easy to guess, judging by the title, that the key figures of the short film were cats. And not just cute, meowing cats, but boxing (albeit in pseudo-gloves) cats.
The whole film (and it is only a few seconds) Henry Welton, acting as a referee, helps to rise on the hind legs of those who are tired of standing on them and conduct such a playful duel on camera, periodically breaking apart the "fighters".
The film had 3 main tasks. First, cinematic (working with plans). After all, we have 3 characters (2 of which are cats, are in the foreground, and a smiling mustachioed man is behind them). Secondly, another popularization of such a sport as boxing. Not only in Europe, but also in America, boxing was so successful that some of the plots of the first short films created at the dawn of world cinema were shot on this topic. Third, the heroes of the film were cats. This, in fact, proves to us that in the current era - the age of the Internet, Instagram, Tick-Tok, and in the era of television and cinema, cats and cats were, are, and remain the sweetness for which the viewer is ready to "stick" on the screen.
Although the film was conceived as a joke (well, no one would seriously release kittens for a duel, and even in such gloves), today the creators would not be patted on the head for such a plot. Current morals would not allow to ignore the fact that animals are simply bullied, forcing to fight (albeit this was an imitation). But you still need to understand that even though in those days, people also loved “Haipan”, people were still different. The current generation will not run out of the room screaming after seeing the Lumiere brothers’ “Arrival of the Train” (because for them the “revived photo” and the transport on the screen moving directly at them is no longer a curiosity), but that audience was excited by this. So the attitude of the viewer of the late 19th century to such humor was different.
6 out of 10