''Le Cake-Walk infernal'', sold in the United States as ''The Cake Walk Infernal'' and in Britain as ''The Infernal Cake Walk'', is a 1903 French

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

silent film by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

. It was sold by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

and is numbered 453–457 in its catalogues. The film features the cakewalk, which was booming in popularity in 1903. Méliès appears in the film as Pluto/

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

and as the grotesque dancing demon. This rhythm-dependent film was probably filmed to piano accompaniment in the studio. Special effects in the film were worked with trapdoors, stage machinery, pyrotechnics,

substitution splice The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining th ...

s, and multiple exposures. ''The Infernal Cake Walk'' features several examples of elements reused from, or later reused in, other films also made by Méliès. The demon masks in the film were originally made for Méliès's ''

A Trip to the Moon ''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and its 1870 s ...

'' (1902), where they are worn by the Selenites (Moon dwellers); similarly, the effect of dancing limbs had previously been used in ''

Dislocation Extraordinary ''Dislocation Extraordinary'' (french: Dislocation mystérieuse), also known as ''Extraordinary Illusions'', is a 1901 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 335–336 in its ...

'' (1901). Conversely, Méliès reused ''The Infernal Cakewalk''s grotto set in his later film '' The Damnation of Faust'' (1903), and recycled the will-o'-the-wisp effect in ''

The Infernal Cauldron ''Le Chaudron infernal'', released in Britain as ''The Infernal Cauldron'' and in the United States as ''The Infernal Caldron and the Phantasmal Vapors'', is a 1903 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès ...

'' (1903).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Infernal Cake Walk French black-and-white films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films 1900s dance films 1903 horror films Silent horror films