March of the Movies

A two-reel short from Alliance (produced in England and not the USA as some sources indicate)covering the history of 'moving pictures' from 1848 to the (then) present, and even going into detail about how stationary frames of pictures are made to move, and how Sound is put onto the track. Footage from many silent films is used, including Mary Pickford (identified as Gladys Nicholson) in 1910's 'Simple Charity', and Camille's death scene from 'La Dame aux cemelias' in which Sarah Bernhardt dies standing on her feet (possibly to ensure the other performers didn't upstage her) and takes her own sweet time doing it. Marlene Dietrich sings 'Falling in Love Again' from the English version of 'The Blue Angel', which is good as the German-language title of that song is tough to write on a keyboard that has no accent marks. This short's title was changed to 'March of the Movies' in the USA, which makes more sense than what most of the US film titles were changed to in England.