''The Thieving Hand'' is a 1908 American silent

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

. It is credited for its astounding trick photography and effects for its age. The film was shot on location in

Flatbush, Brooklyn Flatbush is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood consists of several subsections in central Brooklyn and is generally bounded by Prospect Park to the north, East Flatbush to the east, Midwood to the south, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and released on February 1, 1908 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is one of the 50 films in the 4-disc boxed

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

set called ''Treasures from American Film Archives'' (2000), compiled by the

National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...

from 18 American film archives. The film's print is preserved by the

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

. In November 2008, it was shown in Leeds Film Festival, as part of ''Back to the Electric Palace'', with live music by Sasha Siem, performed in partnership with

Opera North Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and ...

Plot

A one-armed beggar receives a new limb from a strange store that specializes in human appendages. The new arm has a mind of its own, though, and brings the man nothing but trouble.

References

External links

* * 1908 films American black-and-white films American silent short films Films directed by J. Stuart Blackton Films shot in New York City Vitagraph Studios short films Articles containing video clips 1908 comedy films 1900s fantasy comedy films American fantasy comedy films 1900s American films Silent American comedy films {{short-silent-film-stub