Unfaithful Wife (c.1900)

A faithless wife, with a penchant for men in uniform, entertains a sailor before her policeman husband comes home.

As was typical of short comedies in the first few years of cinema, this simple scene encapsulates a story in much the same way that a strip cartoon does. Consciously or not, filmmakers often copied cartoons from the illustrated papers, lantern slides or postcards. The wife is played by a man in drag, while the uniformed men conform to familiar comedy 'types': soldiers are amorous, police are dim.