''The Doctor and the Monkey'' (french: Le Savant et le Chimpanzé) is a 1900 French

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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 ...

directed 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 ...

Plot

In a two-story home (the

cross section Cross section may refer to: * Cross section (geometry) ** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D *Cross section (geology) * Cross section (electronics) * Radar cross section, measure of detectability * Cross section (physics) **Abs ...

design of the set allows the viewer to see both levels), a doctor is studying a caged monkey. When the doctor leaves for a moment, the monkey escapes from the cage and begins wreaking havoc on both floors. The monkey's tail detaches and takes on a life of its own, attaching itself to the doctor's nose. Both the doctor and a housekeeper run about attempting to restore order, but the monkey continues to overturn furniture, and tears off the housekeeper's skirt, leaving her in her

pantalettes Pantalettes are undergarments covering the legs worn by women, girls, and very young boys (before they were breeched) in the early- to mid-19th century. Pantalettes originated in France in the early 19th century, and quickly spread to Britain ...

. As the short film ends, the whole house is in shambles.

Production and release

Méliès himself plays the doctor. The double-decker set was reused later the same year in '' What Is Home Without the Boarder'', in which Méliès plays one of the tenants. The film was released 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 317 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a ''scène comique''.

Reception

In a comparative analysis of film history and

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s, Manuel Garin Boronat notes that the film's imagery prefigures the multilevel action in

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

's game ''

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'' (1981). Rae Beth Gordon, in a study of

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

in Méliès's work, comments that the film, with its antic monkey provoking equally antic behavior from a human, evokes themes of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and of humanity's "tendency to ape what we see" (''tendance de singer ce qu'on voit''). Gordon also notes that monkeys appear in several other films by Méliès, including '' The Merry Frolics of Satan''; their roles in these films, as imitators and bringers of chaos, closely resemble the similar functions of

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s and

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

s in many of Méliès's comedies.

References

External links

*
''The Doctor and the Monkey'' at YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor And The Monkey, The 1900 films 1900 short films French silent short films Films directed by Georges Méliès French black-and-white films Films about monkeys French comedy films 1900 comedy films Silent comedy films