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This 'picture of cinematographic devilry' celebrates the power of the movie
camera to manipulate reality. It harks back to the early years of cinema and
draws upon the technical tricks used by pioneers such as George Albert Smith,
Cecil Hepworth and James Williamson.
The first section of Sheer Trickery develops gags around aspects of British life, such as traffic jams, organised religion and the efficiency of British
workmen. Stop-camera effects, slow motion and acceleration are used in
conjunction with conversational intertitles to create a type of deadpan humour
that director Adrian Brunel had already explored in earlier films such as The Bump (1920) and
would go on to develop in burlesques such as Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924).
The second half of the film consists of a loose narrative in which a man eats
lunch backwards, recalling films such as Smith's The House That Jack Built
(1900). The unfortunate epicure then undergoes a series of breakneck taxi and
train rides that utilise the once-popular concept of the 'phantom ride' (in
which a camera is fixed to the front of a moving vehicle). Cranked up to top
speed, the journey and film swiftly descend into speed-induced anarchy,
culminating in a final chaotic intertitle - "CRIKEY!"
Nathalie Morris
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1. Backwards meal (2:34)
