- Usage
- CC0 1.0 Universal
A fakir is brought forth who does some sword & fire magic to help uncover the culprit who stole the treasure chest. The fakir leads the Rajah to a room with an enormous window, through which a horned djinn is seen flying by on a smoke-billowing wyvern, clutching the stolen casket.
Investigating through a forboding ruin, the fakir & the rajah come upon the djinn's cavern. The rajah draws his sword & destroys the djinn. In the next chamber of the cavern they find the treasure chest, from which arises a beautiful queen dressed in gold & six dancing girls in green. They put on quite a colorful performance, showing a lot of thigh from under their long dresses.
The treasure chest is brought to the rajah's palace where the rajah is enthroned with the queen, the maidens dance joyfully, & the vizier discovers the chest also has jewels within.
Credits
Hand colored by the Pathé stencil set method, The Rajah's Casket (L'Ecrin du Rajah or L'Ecrin du Radjah, 1906) was a French/Italian production and can be found on volume one of Retour de Flamme from Lobster Films in France.
The Rajah's Casket is also the first film in an on-line collection called Collected Works of Segundo de Chomón. Not everything in the string of videos is by Chomón, & this one is properly credited as directed by Gaston Velle, but written, photographed, & with special FX by Chomón means he should be regarded as co-director.
The Rajah's CasketBoth Gaston Velle & Segundo de Chomón worked hard under the influence of Georges Melies. Velle on his own tended to be a weak imitator of Melies. Chomón on the other hand often added something of his own so that his Melies-esque films were of a higher quality. And when he lent his skills as an FX engineer & director of photography to Velles films, they were both pushed to finer heights.
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-rajahscasket.html
Reviews
Subject: Mooresque Fantasy..
Subject: Bon app!
