"The Mystic Swing" is ample evidence of how desperately the Edison Manufacturing Company wanted to catch up with their competition, the great French cinemagician Georges Méliès. For a film of 1900, it is certainly not bad by any means; there is at least somewhat of an effort to incorporate a story into what is otherwise a trick film, yet, compared to how much cleverer the Méliès films were even years before this, there is something lacking. The truth is, while Edwin S. Porter could do as many tricks just as easily and as seamlessly as the French filmmaker, he just couldn't do was recreate the sense of charm that marked the greatness of his competition's work. As a result, "The Mystic Swing" simply comes off as a basic appearing and disappearing act, with little substance or performance to make it particularly enjoyable.
The premise of this one-minute film from Porter is that Mephistopheles (a character who was played much more enjoyably and humorously by Méliès) and a magician are in competition against each other. Each take turns, one making a girl appear on a swing, the other making her disappear. A skeleton later becomes involved and serves the same function, but otherwise, that is all. Additionally, it was interesting to me at least that it was Mephistopheles who was outdone by the magician, rather than the other way around.
The big thing that just makes "The Mystic Swing" another generic trick film is that, outside of the fact the tricks are simple film edits (not dissolves or anything more revolutionary) there is no energetic charm that Méliès brought to the picture when he played the magician. He knew how to entertain because he was a stage magician in real life before being a filmmaker, and in no way could Porter or anyone in the Edison crew be able to top that. Thus, this film is really just a basic example of a trick film from the period, but hardly the best example considering the much more superior work that had been produced already a couple years before.
The premise of this one-minute film from Porter is that Mephistopheles (a character who was played much more enjoyably and humorously by Méliès) and a magician are in competition against each other. Each take turns, one making a girl appear on a swing, the other making her disappear. A skeleton later becomes involved and serves the same function, but otherwise, that is all. Additionally, it was interesting to me at least that it was Mephistopheles who was outdone by the magician, rather than the other way around.
The big thing that just makes "The Mystic Swing" another generic trick film is that, outside of the fact the tricks are simple film edits (not dissolves or anything more revolutionary) there is no energetic charm that Méliès brought to the picture when he played the magician. He knew how to entertain because he was a stage magician in real life before being a filmmaker, and in no way could Porter or anyone in the Edison crew be able to top that. Thus, this film is really just a basic example of a trick film from the period, but hardly the best example considering the much more superior work that had been produced already a couple years before.