User Reviews

This short movie featuring vaudeville dancer Amy Muller is similar in its basic format to the better-known 1890s features starring Annabelle (Whitford) Moore. Muller's act has a different style and appearance, and this is still worth seeing. At the time, it was also released in a hand-tinted version, which apparently no longer survives, and with the tinting plus a clean original print, it probably looked very good.

Muller's specialty was dancing on her toes, and she gives some samples of that as well as demonstrating a couple of her other skills. It's also hard not to notice her very puffy, frilly, dress, which creates part of the effect. Although the print is rather blurry and has a couple of larger defects, you can still tell that she has plenty of energy and talent.

There are surviving 'Annabelle' features both with and without the hand-tinting, and the tinted features are noticeably different. It seems likely that this feature also might look pretty impressive with flashes of different colors that coordinate with the dance movements. Even without the tinting, it still has some good footage worth seeing.

Amy Muller was a vaudeville performer who traveled to New Jersey to perform part of her routine in Edison's Black Maria. William Heise directed.

This film shows dancing that is several steps removed from the energy of Annabelle or Little Egypt.

Library of Congress

Black Maria at Edison and Dixon's studio. Since January 1893, a limited edition of 20-second movies has been shown

This choreographed image of a sliver of sunlight peeking through a roof opening ("a standard feature of the endoscopic film") against a black background stands out in a series of intense sports in the early days of cinema. It was a time when everything was quite pure, wholehearted and hopeful.

Film History page 7

In Edison and Dickson's studio, Black Maria. The 20 seconds limited picture was shown since Jaunurary 1893

This dancing images with black background, patch of sunlight from the opening in the roof ("standard traits of Kinetoscope films This dancing images with black background, patch of sunlight from the opening in the roof ("standard traits of Kinetoscope films") was quite outstanding from a bunch of vigorous sport movements in the early cinema. Wholeheartedly, and hopeful.

In this very brief film, dancer Amy Muller does a very energetic dance, while wearing an incredible dress. The puffy sleeves are fabulous. Amy's appearance calls to mind Mary Pickford, and pre-dates her first screen appearance. She shows off her flexibility quite impressively as well, with a couple of high kicks and an effortless hand stand.

This was, apparently, Amy Muller's only performance in a film, which is a shame, since she's clearly very talented. Her performance is not as visually striking as Annabelle Moore's serpantine dances, nor is it as sexy. I'd hate to assume that 1896 audiences were as innocent and as easily scandalized and aroused as most modern-day viewers tend to believe. This could hardly be the raciest of productions of the time. Today's standards, at least, find it charming and amusing. It's a cute piece of work that I recommend for those seeking something besides the Annabelle loops.

Amy Muller (1896)

*** (out of 4)

Another Edison short, which took a popular vaudeville dancer, in this case Amy Muller, and put her on camera to make some cash. Considering the controversy that was following movies back in the day I'm sure this one here caused quite a stir as the dance, while not graphic by today's standards, was probably fairly shocking to certain groups. Muller appears to have been forgotten today with her more famous dancer Annabelle taking over but this short remains pretty interesting even though the print has all sorts of jumps in it. The film runs less than a half a minute but we do get a brief look at Muller doing her famous toe dance but once again the overall entertainment level is more on the historic side of the short than anything else.