The Scheming Gamblers Paradise

aka: Le Tripot Clandestin

Year: 1906

Time: 3 min.

Synopsis: A casino is built so that whenever the police arrive, it can quickly 'fold' up to become a clothing shop. The craps table becomes a large counter, and its patrons become clerks and customers. However, the police respond to a game of craps when they realize the secret of the "shop".

        One of the more clever  of Melies' later films. Instead of the tyical vanishes and fades, Melies refrains from camera tricks (excluding a brief moment of stop motion to cease the lights in the room) and has constructed a set that folds from a casino to a shop. Though fun to watch, this is an example of the "inept farces" that audiences of this time were begining to grow tired of.

Selected Filmography