Three American Beauties (1906) Online

As simple as it is, this short feature that highlights "Three American Beauties" creates a pleasing and colorful effect. It probably looked quite impressive in its time, and it is still in pretty good condition now.

To the short, straightforward footage of a rose, a woman, and the flag, color was added by the old practice of laboriously hand-tinting each frame, one at a time. The audiences of the era would have been aware of the extra effort involved, and features like this were most generally shown at the end of a series of movies, to provide a colorful and memorable finale.

Among the many hand-tinted features that still survive in viewable form, this has some of the brightest and deepest colors. The colors in it are not, of course, the 'natural' colors of the objects, which makes it particularly interesting to watch now. The best of these early hand-tinted features have a very distinctive look, not quite like anything else. Modern cinematographers themselves sometimes look for ways of making slight changes to the natural color scheme of their subjects, in order to create the right effect - 'back to the future', in a sense.

And besides all that, this little feature is still nice to look at in itself, having fortunately been preserved in nice condition.

It is hard to say much about a 43-second film with no plot. It opens with a gorgeous full-frame colored close-up of an American Beauty red rose. This was startling, since the AFI Catalogue of Film Beginnings, 1893-1910 (published 1995), says the 1906 version was a black-and-white film, according to information from the Edison Film Catalogue. The title frame, with the Edison trademark, also clearly says patented 1906. However, another film called "Three American Beauties (No.2)" released in 1907 was slightly longer and handcolored. I wondered if what was being shown was a combination of the two films: the title frame of the 1906 version and the actual film of the 1907 version. At 43 seconds, the film was incomplete for either version, so we may never know.

This short, one minute Edison film makes no sense if you don't know the history behind it. Hand-colored with reds, yellows and blues, the film has no plot; if you read the title of my review, then you've just read the full 'plot' of the film. So why did Porter bother telling us about this stuff?

According to what I've read, this short was meant to be shown at the ending to a film show. Thus, to make this film seem extra memorable to their audiences, every copy was hand-colored to create an effect that would leave a lasting impression on the audiences. I'm sure they never showed it in Europe, though, because it's really quite patriotic and wouldn't have any relevance in that part of the world. But it sort of makes you feel loyal to your country, though, doesn't it? And in addition, it also provides a look at early hand-colorization. Not to say the coloring is good (it's pretty sloppy in places, but I can forgive considering I've tried the technique myself and done no better). Also, the historical background provides a little interest to this film that would otherwise make no sense.

One might argue that the title of this 51.36-second short, THREE AMER!CAN BEAUTIES (1906) is meant to be illustrative, as opposed to definitive. Common sense suggests otherwise. After all, the Edison folks already were in the practice of making alternate versions of the same short to sell it to their market of nickelodeon proprietors as many times as possible. (THE LIFE OF AN AMER!CAN POLICEMAN is an example of this from the same time frame as THREE AMER!CAN BEAUTIES). So if their aim with this flick simply was to provide a trio of examples of "beauty" found in their existing market, surely they would have done a piece retitled THREE CANAD!AN BEAUTIES, replacing the Stars and Stripes with whatever flag they flew in Toronto and Montreal in 1906. But no, 3AB strikes me as more of a political statement from the light bulb sellers, intended to boost sales of red roses (in which Thomas' henchman probably had just invested), as well as to nip the growing movement toward Afro-centric beauty products in the bud (which would economically devastate Edison by eliminating the ready supply of actresses ready to star (without expensive retro-styling) in his constant stream of blaxploitation films, such as UNCLE TOM'S CABIN and THE WATERMELON PATCH.

Three American Beauties (1906)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The three beauties are a rose, a woman and the American flag. This here runs just over a minute and is best known for being one of the earliest examples of hand tinting. I've seen many early hand tinted pictures but the quality of the tinting is probably the best here.

Police Chasing Scorching Auto (1905)

** (out of 4)

A car almost hits a small child so the police go chase it down. Not too much here.

Terrible Kids, The (1906)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Two kids terrorize the city with their pet bulldog. This is a rather strange film because it is pretty funny but bizarre because of all the dog attacks, which seem pretty brutal and dangerous. One little girl has the dog bite her long hair and pull her around while another scene has the dog get its chain around a woman's neck.