The Short-Sighted Cyclist (1907)

• 58%
• 1907
• Comedy
• Georges Hatot

The cyclist is dispatched upon an important errand, and his humorous and alarming adventures by the way form the subject of this series. Misadventure follows misadventure with great frequency, but the cyclist comes up smiling every time, mounts his machine, and again resumes his journey. Accidents which would maim or kill an ordinary mortal serve only to spur him on to fresh exertions in a mad search for physical inconveniences and dangers, which always present themselves. It may indeed be predicted of the hero that he will either die peacefully in his bed or end his career through slipping on a piece of orange peel, or swallowing a pin. Only an ordinary and simple ending would be appropriate after such a strenuous life. Certainly he will never be hanged or drowned. He charges at full speed a horse-drawn tram car, and is upset. He attacks the double windows of a corner shop, to falls into a basket of eggs on the other side. He bodily upsets a donkey, cart and driver. He is precipitated into and disorganizes a party of men and women enjoying refreshment at an open-air café. He is thrown into a deep excavation in the road, and, colliding with the parapet of a bridge, is thrown over and falls forty feet into a swiftly flowing river, to be fished out and remount his machine. Finally, he appears in full view of the audience, a sorry spectacle of mud, eggs, water and other accumulations, but wearing a grin of triumph which augurs well for his future.