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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you have about forty seconds to spare today, you should probably watch McKay and Ardine. It’s not really a movie in the way we think about them now. There is no plot and nobody learns a lesson at the end.
It is just two people dancing like their lives depend on it. If you are a history nerd or just like seeing how heavy clothes used to look back then, you will dig this. If you need a story, you'll probably hate it and should go watch The Outlaw and His Wife instead.
The first thing you notice is the grain. It is everywhere. The film looks like it was dragged through a gravel pit before being scanned. But that’s part of the charm, honestly.
George and Ottie are doing this vaudeville thing. It’s all high kicks and frantic feet. Ottie’s dress is the real star of the show. It’s this massive, dark piece of fabric that swishes around so much you wonder how she doesn’t trip over herself.
There is a moment where George looks like he is about to lose his balance. Just for a split second. He doesn't, but you can feel the effort. It’s much more real than the polished stuff you see in Shirley Kaye.
The background is just a flat, dark void. They filmed this in the "Black Maria" studio, which was basically a big black box that rotated to catch the sun. It feels claustrophobic but also weirdly intimate.
I love the way they look at the camera. It’s not a professional "I am an actor" look. It is more like "Is this thing actually working?" They seem a bit breathless by the end.
The footwork is so fast it almost blurs. George does this little hop-step thing that looks exhausting. You can almost hear the floorboards creaking, even though there is no sound. The silence is actually pretty loud here.
It reminds me a bit of the energy in Racing Mad, even though that’s a totally different kind of film. There is just this raw desire to move for the lens.
One thing that’s weird is the lighting. It’s so harsh. You can see the dust floating around them in the air. It makes the whole thing feel like a ghost story if you look at it too long.
I’ve seen a lot of these early Edison shorts, like The Fatal Photo, but this one has a different kind of speed. It doesn't feel staged for a photo; it feels like a performance that happened to be caught.
Is it a masterpiece? No. It’s a clip. But it’s a clip of people who have been dead for a long time still dancing. That’s always going to be a bit cool to watch.
It’s better than Alpine Antics if you just want pure, unfiltered movement. No fluff. Just dancing.
The way it just stops is my favorite part. No credits. No fade out. Just a black screen. It’s like the camera just ran out of patience.
Anyway, it's worth the forty seconds. It’s human in a way that big budget stuff usually isn't. It's messy and fast and then it's over.
IMDb —
1919
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