Charles Urban

On September 28th, 1903, the Urban Mountaineering Expedition, headed by Frank Ormiston-Smith, left Zermatt to attempt the conquest of the Matterhorn. On the 29th, the conquest was completed by the filming of the panorama from the actual summit of the mountain. The film consists of 20 scenes and illustrates the whole ascent from Zermatt through the Hornli Ridge. A copy of the film was found in Zermatt in 1953 and was was erroneously attributed to Frederick Burlingham and dated 1901. Since then, the film has been widely publicized as the first mountain film under the title of 'Cervin 1901', but this is incorrect. Ormiston previously had made 'Alpine series' (1901), 'The ascent of Mont Blanc' (1902), 'Climbing the Great Schreckhorn' (1902) and 'Ascent of the Jungfrau' (1903). The pictures and descriptions of the Charles Urban Trading 1903 film catalogue show without any doubt that 'Ascent of the Matterhorn' and 'Cervin 1901' are the same film.

A gentleman is here shown partaking of a little lunch of bread and cheese, and occasionally is seen to glance at his morning paper through a reading glass. He suddenly notices that the cheese is a little out of the ordinary, and examines it with his glass. To his horror, he finds it to be alive with mites, and, in disgust, leaves the table. Hundreds of mites resembling crabs are seen scurrying in all directions. A wonderful picture and a subject hitherto unthought of in animated photography. Notable for being the first science film made for the general public.

The 280 different views comprising this series depict sights along a route over the most important thoroughfares of London, not merely showing street scenes with the principle edifices, monuments, bridges, etc., but include “snapshots” of the various human types and their different occupations and pleasures to be found in all the districts touched upon in our “Bioscopic Ramble,” from fashionable West End London to the slums of Whitechapel etc.

"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.

British adaptation of Trilby filmed in Kinemacolor. Presumed lost.

With a dual motion a cruise ship and a fishing boat pass one another on the Nile and butlers in turbans set up a wooden gangway. Thanks to a rope and pulley system cows climb skywards then disappear into the hold of the sailing vessel. On the bank, black-haired women rock back and forth, bursting out laughing and showing the first signs of going into a state of trance. Never-before filmed gestures and faces of the people of the Nile succeed one another, uprooted to an unknown, magical world. The Banks of the Nile is one of the first experiments of film in colour that uses the Kinemacolor process.

1906, produced by Charles Urban, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith.

Using a futuristic submarine, pirates kidnap a young couple, torpedo a passenger ship, travel under the sea to salvage bullion, then make their escape by taking to the air.

The film uses stop-frame animation to create maps on the screen, and showed the then-current military situation in the Dardanelles, using various maps to assist understanding. Small cardboard cut-outs show the deployment of men and ships. Intertitles explain tactics, and shelling explosions are illustrated by clouds of cotton wool.

Anarchists build a super aircraft and bomb a railway, a fort and St. Paul's.

A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.

Documentary film about the military preparations of the United Kingdom in World War I. It includes scenes of military training of new recruits in Aldershot Garrison, Hampshire. The Royal Navy is depicted stationed at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands.

An early British Kinemacolor short, in which delicate tones and shades of color are beautifully reproduced in examples of highly cultivated sweet pea flowers.

An intensely unhappy woman hatches a plot to switch the babies of a poor family and a rich family. But the nurse hired to pull off this transfer refuses to go through with it, leaving each baby with its proper family. When the babies are grown, the man from the poor family (who has been led to believe that he did come from the rich family) goes to the house of the other and throws him out. The remainder of the film deals with the frustrations of mistaken identity.

Kinemacolor

Documentary about a hunting party.

"A series of films taken during a difficult and dangerous ascent of the Jungfrau;, showing views of the climbers at an height of over 13,000 feet. The party consisted of Messrs. Charles Urban, G. A. Smith, F. Ormiston; Smith, the latter being the well-known mountaineer who has made a specialty of photography at high altitudes, and the two famous Bernese Oberland guides, Christian Bergenes and Hans Bernet. The following briefly indicates the incidents of each film, the whole series forming a grand conception of mountain climbing and its attendant difficulties and dangers :-The last drink before leaving the Chalet- previous to the start; Climbing the Jungfrau;-ascending the Gaggi Glacier, crevasses, slide, etc.; Climbing the Wetterhorn - difficult rock and precipice scaling ; Climbing the Jungfrau; - difficult ice and snow traversing, a slip, reaching summit; A lunch on the mountain and return of the climbers."

King Edward VII's coronation ceremony.

Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor