He_who_lurks This short was included in the first volume of Kino's "The Movies Begin" DVD set, among a series of 'Blue' features. At the time, these 'Blue' movies were considered risque, sometimes having the tendency to show stripteases and other "titillating" activities. Today, they seem quite unoffensive, but as our values have changed since 1904, it is not surprising that this short film of firemen rescuing costumed women from a Burlesque theater was considered offensive at the time. In all honesty, I've seen more risque 'Blue' films, so this one seems very tame. Besides the censorship issues this probably caused, the other interesting thing about this is how the unknown director combined the popular "fireman rescue" genre to use it as the subject of this 'Blue' movie. Other than that, it's not very interesting at all to the modern viewer.

Snow Leopard This short, otherwise unremarkable feature is of some interest because of the way that it unabashedly caters to the tastes that it perceived in its audiences. Besides combining the elements of the risqué 'blue' movies of the era with the popularity of movies about fires, it also attempted to use the combination to get extra mileage out of it.The movie's title summarizes the setup, and most of the footage shows firefighters using ladders to rescue stage girls, clad in portions of their costumes, from an upper level. Although it all seems pretty tame by today's standards, it no doubt provided its male viewers with some brief moments of excitement as the various women hurried down the ladders with their costumes in disarray.In itself, it would now have little power either to excite or to provoke indignation. The main interest that it holds now is as an example of the many movies of its time that willingly used this kind of material, and that obviously found an audience.