The Famous Box Trick (1898)

• 60%
• 1898
• Fantasy
• Georges Méliès

Opens with a magician compressing something white in his hands. It transforms into a living dove. which is quickly deposited into a box sitting on a table behind the magician. In short order several other articles are tossed into the box out of which springs a young boy in clown makeup. The magician helps the boy down then places him atop another small box. He then picks up an executioners ax and appears to be going to slice the boy lengthwise. Instead, as the ax touches him the boy turns into twins! The magician then uses his mystical powers to make first one and then the other disappear. To prove they haven't gone into the box, he destroys it then causes the boy to reappear on top of one of the pieces. .Hoisting the child one more time he makes him transform into a French and an American flag which the magician waves triumphantly.