User Reviews

An intriguing little stop-motion picture from F. Percy Smith that professes to demonstrate how spiders do, indeed, fly. It's only a minute long, but it must have taken many hours to film the mechanical spider's movements.

No, it's not the science of cities, but a series of scientific short films produced by Charles Urban, the first great British magnate of film. He had given up directing his own films in favor of producing and distributing, along with technical advances like an early color process called Kinemacolour. He was one of those individuals who touted movies as a great educational medium, and he practiced what he preached, producing many a short subject like this one.

Did you know that spiders can fly? How do they do it? By producing the same sort of silk that they use to produce their webs, in sufficient volume that it can catch the breeze and carry them along. Spiders, in essence, fly in the same way that kites fly, and this one-minute short subject will show that in action.

It's a fascinating little short, unless you're one of those people who think that spiders are creepy. I'm happy to say that I am not.