The Cake-Walk Infernal

The summary was NOT meant to be negative--it is a true description of what seems to be happening in this pleasant but not especially remarkable film by that genius of silent cinema, Georges Méliès.

The film was made on a set with sliding backdrops. They are painted up to look like a cave--I assume this is meant to be Hell inside the Earth. And into this cave appear a wide variety of ladies dancing can-can style as well as the Devil himself. It all seems very random--with various characters appearing and disappearing without much story line or reason. Because there is no apparent theme, it all looks like a talent show, of sorts, and is among the poorer films I've seen by Méliès.

Having said this, poor Méliès is still great film work when compared to his contemporaries--even those who were deliberately copying his style and camera tricks. The randomness and ordinariness don't mean this isn't entertaining--but it sure could have used a theme to give it a sense of purpose other than to say "life here in Hell is pretty cool--come join the party"!