TRAIN ROBBERY IN MEXICO, A

1904, Germany

Aka… Ein Eisenbahn-Überfall in Mexiko / ‘A Train Robbery in Mexico’ / ‘A Railroad Robbery in Mexico’ (Ger)

Ex… Jærnbaneoverfald i Meksiko / ‘Railway assault in Mexico’ (Den), Overfald på et Meksikansk Jernbanetog (alt Den), Togoverfald i Meksiko / ‘Train Assault in Mexico’ (alt Den)

Pc: Messter Film [Oskar Messter] (Ber)

Dist: Messters Projektion GmbH [Oskar Messter] (07/04, Ger), Messters (09/03/04, Den)

P: Oskar Messter

D: Oskar Messter

C: [unk]

 

Syn: Mexico / US border [?]. Outlaws rob the Mexican mail train.

     Comm: Set in Mexico but most likely shot in Europe. A TRAIN ROBBERY IN MEXICO was Germany’s answer to Thomas Edison & Edwin Porter’s “Great Train Robbery” (1903, US), which had been shown in Germany in April of 1904. Messters’s ‘Train Robbery’ played the Apollo Theatre in Berlin in the summer of 1904. Earlier that year Messters Projektion had made AMERICAN STREET SINGER (01/04), which likely had no reel plot. These two titles show how quickly both filmmakers and audiences were changing their tastes and time tolerances as film developed.

     A few years later both the French and the Italians made similar ‘train robbery dramas’: Pathé with THE UNCLE’S FORTUNE (08/08, Fr), and “An Attack on a Country Postman” (1908, It) aka “Campagna Romana” [?] (1908) which may or may not have had western elements.

 

By Michael Ferguson