Cecil M. Hepworth

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch....

Dog Rover, from Rescued by Rover fame, chases a kidnapper's car and while he is in a pub, drives it safely home and thus saves the baby.

As the camera looks down an open road, a horse and carriage approaches, and passes by to one side of the field of view. Soon afterwards, an...

An early trick film where a car explodes and body parts fall from the sky. A policeman witnesses and attempts to piece the remains back together.

A policeman is run over by an automobile

A dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.

A professor eating his lunch at his work table becomes suspicious of the taste of his cheese. He puts a slice under the nearby microscope. But the...

TRICK. Two bathers arrive at a river, disrobe at the water's edge and dive in. The action is then reversed and the men are seen leaving the water...

A Victorian vaudeville routine is given the big screen treatment with camera tricks galore.Three characters straight off the vaudeville stage - the...

A cashier gambles and robs a bank, but returns the money for his mother's sake.

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch....

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch....

A dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.

'Devon. Farming brothers give home to orphan shepherdess evicted for suspected immorality.' (British Film Catalogue)

'Lady introduces wounded cobbler to Minister of Pensions, who makes him gift from King's Fund.' (British Film Catalogue)

An early trick film where a car explodes and body parts fall from the sky. A policeman witnesses and attempts to piece the remains back together.

As the camera looks down an open road, a horse and carriage approaches, and passes by to one side of the field of view. Soon afterwards, an...

Documentary on the process of hay-making, from the cutting of the grass to the stacking of the hay.

HELEN OF FOUR GATES was made in Hebden Bridge in 1920 by silent film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth, based on a popular novel of the same name. Reportedly...

A boy breaks his sister's doll and it mends, grows, tears him up and eats him.

A boy breaks his sister's doll and it mends, grows, tears him up and eats him.

A Prussian lieutenant rapes a girl in 1870. He is killed by their son in 1914.

A dramatic scene - and exactly what moving pictures were invented for. With a fixed camera and without a traditional narrative, this film...

A girl wins her rival's fiancé with a fake marriage announcement.

The lacemakers of Honiton, a small town in Devon, who have made bobbin lace since the 16th century.

A professor eating his lunch at his work table becomes suspicious of the taste of his cheese. He puts a slice under the nearby microscope. But the...

British propaganda piece warning against buying German goods after the war, summer 1918.

An early example of film nostalgia. This lengthy programme put together by filmmaker Cecil Hepworth, largely from films in his own collection, is a...

A mesmerist, obsessed with putting a beautiful woman under his power, hypnotizes her to try to force her to kill her fiancé. His plans are...

Early footage of Queen Victoria’s funeral.

A professor takes daughter's suitor's camera by mistake.

A man fakes an engagement to a typist to please his rich aunt.

Cut-out animated parody of Hamlet by pioneering British animator Anson Dyer.

Anson Dyer's animation of the age-old fable, made for Hepworth.

This is a ladies cycling display by the Catford Cycling Club in the summer of 1899 in London, England.

This is a ladies cycling display by the Catford Cycling Club in the summer of 1899 in London, England.

A Scottish Laird weds a peasant's niece who falls in love with his nephew.....

A Scottish Laird weds a peasant's niece who falls in love with his nephew.....

Two identical sisters are able to switch places, leading to a series of unfortunate incidents.

Two identical sisters are able to switch places, leading to a series of unfortunate incidents.

A housekeeper's daughter loves a toper's affianced friend.

Survey of the Boer war with reconstructions and actualities.

Six scenes: A child knocks clothes into fire; alarm at station; engines emerge; engines rush down street; arrival; fireman breaks through wall and...

A boy uses a professor's liquid to make objects transparent.

A phantom ride.

A phantom ride.

An inventive use of slow-motion filming helps hammer home the gag as an unconvincing 'Indian chief' hopes to dissolve some trapped wind with a...

A soldier's tunic button, made from Aladdin's lamp, grants his wishes.

A jealous girl breaks up a friend's engagement with a fake wedding announcement.

A troupe of gypsies takes a traveler along with them on their day trip.

A rich man's son loves a nature girl loved by a gypsy who is really her half brother.

A scientist dreams of prehistoric monsters. He awakes in a cavern. A dinosaur chases him, even though he tries to shoot it with his revolver. The...

Produced and directed by George Albert Smith, the film shows a couple sharing a brief kiss as their train passes through a tunnel. The Kiss in the...

Produced and directed by George Albert Smith, the film shows a couple sharing a brief kiss as their train passes through a tunnel. The Kiss in the...

An actuality film of the 1900 Paris Exhibition, shot from a boat travelling down the Seine.

An Essec sailor helps a girl save an heir from his crooked uncle.

Young heiress Margaret Yeoland is found unconscious on the Devonshire moors by a disillusioned author, Denis Marlowe. She tells him she has run away...

Young heiress Margaret Yeoland is found unconscious on the Devonshire moors by a disillusioned author, Denis Marlowe. She tells him she has run away...

A man preparing for a trip encounters a series of mysterious problems.

King of Iran, travel to Europe.

King of Iran, travel to Europe.

First film of Burnham Beeches, the famous beauty spot and ultimate film location.

The story of a small valley community that is narrow minded and those who wish to leave it on the train that regularly hurries from the narrow valley.

The story of a small valley community that is narrow minded and those who wish to leave it on the train that regularly hurries from the narrow valley.

A schoolgirl annoys the new teacher by getting her friends to answer an inspector incorrectly.

Cecil Hepworth’s Vivaphone film features Hay Plumb singing George Robins’ optimistic 1906 ditty concerning the mischievous responses of a...

Filmed from the front of a steam launch in a late Victorian summer, this film offers a glimpse of our 19th century ancestors enjoying their leisure...

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch....

A mesmerist, obsessed with putting a beautiful woman under his power, hypnotizes her to try to force her to kill her fiancé. His plans are...

A mesmerist, obsessed with putting a beautiful woman under his power, hypnotizes her to try to force her to kill her fiancé. His plans are...

HELEN OF FOUR GATES was made in Hebden Bridge in 1920 by silent film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth, based on a popular novel of the same name. Reportedly...

A working knowledge of Morse code and the foresight to pick a train driver for a sweetheart come in handy in this ‘race to the rescue’...

TRICK. Two bathers arrive at a river, disrobe at the water's edge and dive in. The action is then reversed and the men are seen leaving the water...

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch....

TRICK. Two bathers arrive at a river, disrobe at the water's edge and dive in. The action is then reversed and the men are seen leaving the water...

A tramp persuades another tramp to let him have a coat off a scarecrow by persuading him it's haunted.

A legless beggar with a sign around his neck saying "cripple" pushes himself slowly and laboriously on a trolley along the pavement, soliciting alms...

Scenes from the coronation of George V. Included on the BFI DVD "A Royal Occasion".

Scenes from the coronation of George V. Included on the BFI DVD "A Royal Occasion".