But now it looks like we can no longer award this seminal sci-fi moment to The Master Mystery. The blog The End of Being has posted photos and a clip from a lost 1913 Italian film called The Mechanical Man, featuring with a pretty spectacular movie robot -- dang-it.
But I guess we can still say The Mastery Mystery contained the first robot in American cinema history. That's still pretty good.
By the way, I often wonder what ever happened to the Automaton costume, or even just the head? Wouldn't this be a wonderful find in 2012?
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| Robot from The Mechanical Man (1913) |
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Aw, and the "Mechanical Man" robot even looks way awesomer than the "Master Mystery" one. Dang!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I wish we could see the "Master Mystery" automaton costume on display someday. Maybe some collector is waiting until they die for it to be auctioned off. Or, more likely, it was trashed. :(
I know. The fact that he looks way cooler than the Automaton just adds salt to the wounds.
DeleteJohn, funny you should bring up this topic, as I was just casually researching this a week or so ago. "Gugusse et l'Automate" (translation: "The Clown and the Automaton"), a short French film made in 1897, might be *the* first film robot since it featured a life-size automaton chasing, well, the clown. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, that's interesting! Thanks, Tom.
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