Watch European Rest Cure

This spoof on the popular travelogue genre follows an American tourist across Europe and the Middle East on a "rest cure," in which one physically or emotionally wrenching disaster follows another. Foreign locales were actually pasteboard sets of pyramids, Roman ruins and a French cafe, while additional scenes were shot on location at Hudson River docks as the tourist leaves and returns. Porter combined this original material with footage of S.S. COPTIC RUNNING AGAINST THE STORM, taken by James White on his Pacific voyage in 1898, and PILOT LEAVING PRINZESSEN VICTORIA LUISE AT SANDY HOOK, taken by White in late 1902. Another shot was excerpted from SKY SCRAPERS OF NEW YORK FROM THE NORTH RIVER, which James Smith had filmed in May 1903.