(1903)

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Good Early short
Michael_Elliott26 February 2008
Search for the Evidence, A (1903)

*** (out of 4)

Biograph short about a woman and a detective peeking through keyholes at a hotel trying to catch her husband cheating. The story really doesn't go anywhere here as the film ends just as the woman finds her husband but it's still put together pretty nicely. The editing to the keyholes and then back to the wife are handled well. The cameraman was G.W. Bitzer.

Available through Grapevine as part of their Biograph Without Griffith disc.
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7/10
Implied Depths and Variety
boblipton11 July 2018
This movie shot by Billy Bitzer is clearly an expansion on Ferdinand Zecca's racy 1901 short, PAR LE TROU DE LA SERRURE. A man and a woman go through a hallway in a hotel and look through keyholes. Through a keyhole stencil, they see a series of scenes, until they find what they are looking for.

Zecca's original was little more than an assortment of racy postcard images. Combined with the keyhole iris, it raised them from ordinary smut to an even dirtier form of voyeurism. This movie, in contrast, has an actual plot, and each keyhole view tells a different story, none with any overt dirtiness. Although the overall story leads to one conclusion, the variety of vignettes glimpsed lends a depth to the storytelling that the cinema was not ready to explore.
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Fair Comedy
Snow Leopard30 September 2004
This fair comedy is mostly notable for its use of the through-the-keyhole camera views that form much of the film. They were not new even in 1903, but this movie does get some credit for using them effectively. The story, though, is just a little too plain to make the movie much more than average for its era.

The story starts with a woman peeking through keyholes in a hotel, expecting to catch her husband in a compromising position. One difference between "A Search For the Evidence" and other films with the same technique is that here the woman has a specific reason for her otherwise voyeuristic behavior.

Most of what follows, though, is only mildly creative. From a technical viewpoint, it works pretty well, with some simple but smooth dissolves as well as the point of view shots. With somewhat more imaginative story material, it could have been pretty good.
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