The Four Troublesome Heads (1898) on Netflix
TV-PG18981mComedy
A magician stands between two tables and lifts his own head from his shoulders, setting it down where it talks and looks around. A fresh head grows in its place.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.5/104,594 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
The stage holds two tables, and the magician stands between them with his head in its place. He takes the head off his own shoulders and sets it down, where it begins to speak and look around. Another head appears on his neck, and he removes that one too. Four identical heads sit on the tables at once. He takes up a banjo, and all four heads sing together with him. The effect came from substitution splices and four separate exposures, one of the earliest uses of multiple exposure against a black background, and it rests on the magician's timing, gestural movement and mime.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Four Troublesome Heads (1898)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Four Troublesome Heads contains one of the first known uses of multiple exposure of objects on a black background on film, a special effect Georges Méliès went on to use prolifically.
- It marks the first known time Georges Méliès filmed living heads or other body parts separated from the rest of the body, a motif that became a favourite of his.
- An illegal print of the film, copied without Georges Méliès's authorization, was released in America in 1903 by Siegmund Lubin under the title Four Heads Are Better Than One.
- In The Four Troublesome Heads, the trick of the detachable heads was handled using substitution splices and four separate exposures.
