Watch Interrupted Bathers

This Thomas Edison production was probably pretty racy in 1902. Its protagonists are some women bathing in a lake. Though wearing the voluminous, ultra-modest swimsuits of the era, they're mortified when a couple disreputable-looking, possibly drunk men turn up to taunt them from the shore and steal their clothes. A brief closing sight gag shows just what solution the ladies come up with in terms of immediate dry-land-wear. It's remarkable to think while watching this simple one-gag, nearly one-shot exercise that just months later co-director Edwin S. Porter would create the elaborate and innovative GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY which greatly influenced the expansion of a cinematic language. - Dennis Harvey