''The Tramp and the Mattress Makers'' (french: La Cardeuse de matelas) is a 1906 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

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

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 818–820 in its catalogues.

Plot

In front of a shop, three mattress makers are busy sewing a mattress. When they go into a cheap

wine bar A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, ...

for a break, a drunken tramp ambles onto the scene, and decides to take a nap inside the mattress. The workers come back and finish sewing up the mattress, not noticing the tramp sleeping inside it. Suddenly the tramp wakes up and tries to struggle out. Workers and passersby alike are startled to see what appears to be a living mattress tumbling and stumbling in the street. The tramp, still completely inside the mattress, makes his way into the nearby wine bar. In the ensuing confusion, all the customers and bar staff run out, and a policeman rushes in to arrest the living mattress. When he stumbles into the policeman, the tramp finally manages to tear his way out of the mattress. Bar, mattress, and furniture alike all end up on top of the policeman. In a final

medium shot In a movie a medium shot, mid shot (MS), or waist shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance. Use Medium shots are favored in sequences where dialogues or a small group of people are acting, as they give the viewer a partial view of th ...

, preceded by a trilingual intertitle ("À Votre Santé, Good Health, Prosit!!!"), the tramp pours himself a drink and toasts the audience.

Production

The actors Manuel and Bruneval appear in the film as the tramp and the bald barman, respectively. The only special effect used is the

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 ...

. The intertitle is lettered similarly to the title cards in two other films Méliès made that year, ''

The Witch A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Witch, WITCH, or variations thereof may also refer to: Animals * Witch (lefteye flounder) (''Arnoglossus scapha''), a Pacific flatfish * Witch (righteye flounder) (''Glyptocephalus cynoglossus''), a Euro ...

'' and ''

Soap Bubbles A soap bubble is an extremely thin film of soap or detergent and water enclosing air that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds before bursting, either on their own or on contact ...

''. Méliès only rarely used titles within his films; in at least one example, the 1908 comedy ''

French Cops Learning English ''French Cops Learning English'', originally copyrighted in the United States as ''French Interpreter Policeman'', is a 1908 French short silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is n ...

'', these took the form of placards held up within the film itself. The concluding medium shot is likewise a rare occurrence in Méliès's films, which are typically made up of

long shot In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surrou ...

s. He later used similar concluding shots in ''The Witch'' the same year, and ''

How Bridget's Lover Escaped ''How Bridget's Lover Escaped'' (french: Le Mariage de Victorine), also known as ''Le Mariage de Victoire'', is a 1907 French short silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. Plot Production The cast includes Fernande Albany as the cook ...

'' the following year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tramp And The Mattress Makers French black-and-white films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films