User Reviews

William K. L. Dickson directs this short, featuring the great American legend of Rip Van Winkle. This is only part of the series, which stars actor Joseph Jefferson as the title character.

Jefferson was famous for playing Van Winkle for 40 years across various stages and lived long enough to portray the character in film. The prolific cinematographer G. W. Blitzed runs the camera as this film is part of history as one of the first films to attempt to adapt famous literature to the new medium of film. Though not very impressive today, Washington Irving's character and his various adventures would have been readily apparent to any viewer of the 1890s.

Rip's Toast (1896)

Rip Meeting the Dwarf (1896)

Exit of Rip and the Dwarf (1896)

Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow (1896)

Rip's Toast to Hudson and Crew (1896)

Rip's Twenty Years' Sleep (1896)

Awakening of Rip (1896)

Rip Passing Over Hill (1896)

The American Mutoscope Company is responsible for the above eight films, which feature actor Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle, the famous character we all know. These eight films were originally made in 1896 and sold separately as different films but in 1903 the studio edited them together to make Rip Van Winkle. Looking at them separately is pretty interesting but knowing more of their history would be good. I'm guessing the eight films were released at different times so I guess you could call these an early attempt at what would become a serial. Jefferson is pretty good in his role as Rip, although he doesn't have too much to do except look jolly in some of the films or greet the dwarf in others. The Awakening of Rip is pretty good as we get to see the actor made up as an old man and he doesn't look too bad considering when the film was made. All eight run 20-25 seconds total so with that in mind these are an interesting bit of history.

Well, here I am, almost done reviewing all eight of Dickson's Rip van Winkle segments. No wonder they decided to put them all together in 1903 to make a complete film, because once again when you look at each one you won't really be able to see what they were going for. "Awakening of Rip" (number 7 in the serial) picks up just after "Rip's Twenty Year Sleep", and despite the title you never do actually get to see him wake up. The film (which is actually longer than most of the other installments) begins just after Rip has gotten up off the ground during his sleep. Joseph Jefferson does a good job in his role here because of Rip's slow movements when picking up the staff and trying to walk. Also, the costuming to show his make up as an old man is about as good as you could do today. Again, however, not a stand-alone film at all because of the intention of it being part of an entire film. Someday I should get rid of the title cards and put it all together that way so I could at least see how they wanted it to look.