When a French nobleman puts an advertisement for a bride in the paper, dozens of old maids meet up with him at a fountain and chase him until he is caught by Gilbert Saroni.
Until the 1910s, there was no copyright protection for movies. Producers were free to remake a successful film or even to buy a print and strike new copies without further payment. There were efforts to deal with this by placing a company's trademark in as many shots as possible, or by printing a copy of the film on paper and registering it with the Library of Congress as a book. These paper prints are the source of many films from this era.
Of the remakers, none was as frequent as Siegmund Lubin of Philadelphia. Although he had probably the best photographic equipment in the industry -- he had begun as a lens maker -- his was a very conservative studio. He let others take the big chances and then followed up, as he did here.
This film is a remake of Edwin Porter's " How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns", which in turn was probably a remake of a European comedy. Lubin does offer some extra value by having the well-known cross-dressing comic Gilbert Saroni play the crone who gets the nobleman. In addition, the shots of the chase are better shot than in Porter's version. However, if you compare the two, you'll see that at this stage in the evolution of film, this is a remake.
Until the 1910s, there was no copyright protection for movies. Producers were free to remake a successful film or even to buy a print and strike new copies without further payment. There were efforts to deal with this by placing a company's trademark in as many shots as possible, or by printing a copy of the film on paper and registering it with the Library of Congress as a book. These paper prints are the source of many films from this era.
Of the remakers, none was as frequent as Siegmund Lubin of Philadelphia. Although he had probably the best photographic equipment in the industry -- he had begun as a lens maker -- his was a very conservative studio. He let others take the big chances and then followed up, as he did here.
This film is a remake of Edwin Porter's " How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns", which in turn was probably a remake of a European comedy. Lubin does offer some extra value by having the well-known cross-dressing comic Gilbert Saroni play the crone who gets the nobleman. In addition, the shots of the chase are better shot than in Porter's version. However, if you compare the two, you'll see that at this stage in the evolution of film, this is a remake.
