Harlequin is walking in a garden with Columbine. As he moves away to the distance and leaves her on her own, Mephisto appears, from inside a well, and tries to woo her.
This film is part of the Mitchell and Kenyon collection - an amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Likely the world's oldest color film, shot in 1902. Like other works by Edward R. Turner, there is no indication that it was ever relesead to the public before its discovery in 2012.
"Danse serpentine" (Gaumont #588) is part of the "Miss Lina Esbrard. Danseuse cosmopolite et serpentine" series of 4 films, and should not be confused with "Danse excentrique" (Gaumont #587), "Danse fantaisiste" (Gaumont #589) or "La Gigue" (Gaumont #590).
The bicycle was still a novelty at the beginning of the 20th century. At the Villa Belle Rive in Cannes, the Lavanchy-Clarke family engage with it cyclically, with gaps in the film in order to convey a sense of the laps.