Before you watch "Up the River" and criticize it for a weak plot, you must realize that many of the films in 1896 had no plot whatsoever--mainly consisting of babies being fed, people playing cards, street scenes, etc. This film actually has a plot--a small one, but a plot nonetheless. In it, a woman on a boat on the River Thames drops a "baby"--probably only a bundle of cloth--into the River, and then it's rescued by a fisherman. At only a minute you can't expect much more. If one was to provide any cons--which aren't really fair to give for a movie this early--the acting is really bad and it looks like the woman dropped the baby purposefully. Because at the time people were just fascinated by watching a film with any movement at all, that small flaw was certainly overlooked and this Robert Paul film thus remains a pretty good attempt at drama for 1896.