Restored Houdini movies features a fight with the first ever robot in a motion picture

Dwiff sez, "Great trailer for Kino's upcoming release of Houdini the Movie Star, restored editions of Harry Houdini's silent era action blockbusters - including a truly 'teh awesome' sequence from 'The Master Mystery' with Harry Houdini battling THE FIRST EVER ROBOT IN A MOTION PICTURE." Link, Link to Houdini the Movie Star on Amazon (Thanks, Dwiff!)

• [Takuan]

  at least I know where the pants came from

  http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ferrisdp/NSF/wgwrongtrousers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ferrisdp/NSF/fictional.htm&h=423&w=397&sz=45&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=gOU3km-6ZyS-6M:&tbnh=126&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bwrong%2Btrousers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3DGGGL,GGGL:2006-32,GGGL:en%26sa%3DN

• [Antinous]

  Do we need that tutorial on URL masking again?

  <a href=”URL”>VERBIAGE</a>

  Also, when it’s via google images, you can amputate the first part of the URL until you get to the last http.

• [Takuan]

  I thought upon that. An URL that is legible usually offers clues to the attentive reader as to what they might be about to open. A masked URL possibly contains hazard to the socially constrained reader. Consider how many here have commented on NSFW data.

  A stylistic/functional trade-off. Also, I am far too lazy and old to be taught with anything less than a large stick with TWO nails in it.

  I appreciate your work though and have decided not to kill your puppy.

• [Antinous]

  Fine. At least pare the URL down to the functional parts.

  How old are you, anyway?

• [dwiff]

  I am aware that Master Mystery predates Rossum’s Universal Robots.

  “They” didn’t call it a robot. I did. Because we do.

  And “first ever automaton” hardly conveys teh awesome that is “Q.”

  Sometimes an error ain’t nuthin’ more than sidewalk hucksterism.

• [Takuan]

  So,so old……

• [Antinous]

  Can you quantify that, sensei-ue?

• [Takuan]

  old enough to need deodorant

• [georgelazenby]

  They can’t have called it a robot, ’cause that word wouldn’t be used to refer to an artificial servant for another two years when R.U.R. premiered.

• [Dave Faris]

  One has to wonder if it’s really the first robot in film, or just the earliest surviving depiction.

• [arto]

  Behind Houdini’s beard is another fist!

• [sonny p fontaine]

  i want boilerplate pants. they look roomy.

• [Junior Mad Scientist]

  Per IMDB, robot= “Q the Automaton”. Also per IMDB a version of R.U.R appeared on TV in Europe (?!??).

  My wife bought me a “Master Mystery” reproduction movie poster, complete with scary mechanical man looming in the background. Awesomely cool. And the poster is nice, too.

• [Junior Mad Scientist]

  Also per IMDB a version of R.U.R appeared on TV in Europe (?!??).

  should have read

  “a version of R.U.R appeared on TV in Europe in 1938 (?!??)”

  ah, that’s better.

• [se7a7n7]

  that robot is awesome

• [JG]

  Harry Houdini was quite the innovator and consumer advocate at the time.
  He was the consummate showman.
  His work against crackpot mediums, tarot readers and other phony wizardry was a great service to so many left bereaved by World War One.

  Truly one of the first modern Super Stars.

  “The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin,” Harry Houdini

  ###

• [Cupcake Faerie]

  I just want say that Kino is a great distributor of silent era films. I recently bought the TOM VERLAINE AND JIMMY RIP: MUSIC FOR EXPERIMENTAL FILM (2007) DvD from Kino. An awesome juxtoposition of Verlaine/Rip’s guitar instrumentals with avant garde silent classics like “Etoile de Mer” and “Emak Bakia” from Man Ray, and Richter’s Rythmus 21 and several others. Check it out
  here: http://www.kino.com/video/news.php?news_id=53

• [Glossolalia Black]

  That music is really amazing. And now someone has to do a Houdini vs. The Robots comic or something.