2 A. M. in the Subway

Plot summary

A tired cop and a subway conductor are seen waiting at a subway platform, late at night. The conductor opens the doors to the train at left, and out steps an obviously drunk man, played by Sidney Olcott, carried between two women in fancy dress. The cop begins to mix it up with the three of them, and they are interrupted by another man in a bowler hat; he is carrying a large package and steps onto the train to the right after greeting the two women and the drunk man. One of the women steps forward into the frame and lifts up her skirt so that the drunk man can tie her shoe. This gets the attention of the cop, who hustles the three of them onto the train; meanwhile what appears to be a pair of bare legs stick out from a window of a train car and are quickly withdrawn. The cop just manages to notice this, and calls all parties back out to the platform where it is revealed that the man in the bowler hat has a pair of department store mannequin's legs with him.

Historical background

On May 21, 1905, Billy Bitzer had made his film Interior N.Y. subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. from the front of a New York City Subway car; at that point the Subway itself had been open only seven months. The very day that subject was submitted for copyright, this one was made at the Biograph studio; it was copyrighted on 20 June. Although the six actors involved are unidentified, aside from Sidney Olcott, the action is obviously tightly coordinated in order to get all of the action into such a short subject.

AM&B sent two paper prints of this film for copyright, and the better of the two copies was rephotographed for preservation.

References

References

1. Fitzpatrick, Tracy. (2009). "Art and the subway : New York underground". Rutgers University Press.
2. "Les premières armes".
3. "2 a.m. in the subway / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.".