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''Above the Limit'' (United States sinema.com (Turkish)
, ''Chimmie Hicks and the Rum Omelet'', accessed 02-19-2009 it was shot in September and October 1900 and released in November of that year for viewing in
The film is a silent character sketch that shows Chimmie Hicks ( Charles E. Grapewin) imitating a man at the races winning and losing. Filmed on a bare stage with a dark backdrop, the sketch captures Chimmie in a three-piece suit and overcoat holding a racing program while watching a race taking place offstage. It shows him excitedly jumping and pantomiming that his horse has won the race. A second man enters the frame and gives Chimmie his winnings. Chimmie returns a sum of money to the booker to place another bet. The next race begins and Chimmie again shows great excitement, which quickly turns to despair and anger as the horse loses. The bookie returns, collects all of Chimmie's money and his watch. The gambler falls to his knees, shakes his arms toward the sky, and tears up his racing form, scattering the pieces on the ground. He rises and sadly begins to leave the stage.
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
1902 as ''Chimmie Hicks at the Races'') is a 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 ...
made in November 1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
by Frederick S. Armitage. It marks the film debut of vaudevillian
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
actor Charley Grapewin
Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville and circus performer, a writer, and a stage and film actor. He worked in over 100 motion pictures during the silent and sound eras, most notably port ...
, 39 years before his more memorable role as Dorothy's Uncle Henry in MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
's'' The Wizard of Oz''. Created by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition ...
along with its sister film, Grapewin's ''Chimmie Hicks and the Rum Omelet'',, ''Chimmie Hicks and the Rum Omelet'', accessed 02-19-2009 it was shot in September and October 1900 and released in November of that year for viewing in
Mutoscope
The Mutoscope is an early motion picture device, invented by W. K. L. Dickson and Herman Casler and later patented by Herman Casler on November 21, 1894. Like Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, it did not project on a screen and provided viewing to ...
"Moving Picture Machines" (a format with greater viewing quality than the Edison Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...
) as a tale sharing the pitfalls of gambling.Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
Moving Image Collection, "Chimmie Hicks at the races / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company", accessed 02-19-2009
Plot
The film is a silent character sketch that shows Chimmie Hicks ( Charles E. Grapewin) imitating a man at the races winning and losing. Filmed on a bare stage with a dark backdrop, the sketch captures Chimmie in a three-piece suit and overcoat holding a racing program while watching a race taking place offstage. It shows him excitedly jumping and pantomiming that his horse has won the race. A second man enters the frame and gives Chimmie his winnings. Chimmie returns a sum of money to the booker to place another bet. The next race begins and Chimmie again shows great excitement, which quickly turns to despair and anger as the horse loses. The bookie returns, collects all of Chimmie's money and his watch. The gambler falls to his knees, shakes his arms toward the sky, and tears up his racing form, scattering the pieces on the ground. He rises and sadly begins to leave the stage.
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Above The Limit 1900 films American silent short films American black-and-white films 1900s sports comedy films American horse racing films American sports comedy films 1900 short films American comedy short films Biograph Company films 1900s American films Silent American comedy films