The Express Sculptor

Segundo de Chomón for Pathé, 1907: a vaudeville sculptor (Lee Yost) and his assistant (Julienne Mathieu) make faces out of clay faster than the camera should allow, then punch them apart and start again. Four minutes. The hoop entrance is a trick; the rest is not stop-motion but speed, the lightning-sketch short done in clay. Chomón, Pathé's answer to Méliès, usually hid the cut. Here he lets you watch a man who is actually that fast. The pleasure is the hands.