Infernal Cakewalk

B&W 1903

M?li?s used a very popular dance at the time and used it as the basis for a film. How would the cake-walk be danced if they knew it in Hell? M?li?s himself appears as the demon who jumps out of the cake in the second part of the film and that's where the man goes experimental again. M?li?s manages to shoot himself in two parts: a dancing torso, dancing legs and a void in between. By today's standards the trickery isn't too convincing, but you'd have to be of bad will to say it's poorly done. Then you have to think of this short movie being made nearly a century ago and it's then you fully realise M?li?s was more than a pioneer, he was a genius. A genius who sometimes told a story and sometimes just went for lavish eye-candy.