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The Fly Pest
(1910) England
B&W : Split-reel
Directed by F. Percy Smith
Cast: (unknown)
Charles Urban Trading Company production; distributed by Charles Urban Trading Company. / Produced by Charles Urban. Cinematography by F. Percy Smith. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA by Kleine Optical Company in a split-reel with Her Father’s Choice (1910).
Educational.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The series of pictures, which is entitled “The Fly Pest,” shows flies (as big as Plymouth Rock hens, as they appear on the screen) laying eggs in putrid meat; the eggs in white masses: the maggots in writhing heaps as they emerge from the eggs, and in different stages of their growth as maggots, until they burrow in the dirt to enter the pupa state; the pupa; (or grubs) themselves, one day later; flies emerging from the filth, at first wingless; then the perfect adult fly. Then follow pictures, stretching across the screen, of a fly taking a sip of honey from the point of a needle, showing the action of the proboscis, very like an elephant’s trunk in miniature; of the tongue, and of the foot, also enormously enlarged, and with every microscopic hair distinct. The second act of this little life-history is entitled: “How Flies Carry Contagion.” In it these scenes follow one another in rapid succession, so that the most thoughtless spectator cannot fail to grasp their full significance: Flies swarming on putrid fish: crawling over lumps of sugar: in a cuspidor; on the nipple of a baby’s feeding bottle; and, last of all, a pretty baby placidly sucking the mouthpiece from which the flies have just departed.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown) [United Kingdom]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 April 2020.
References: Sloan-Loud p. 27 : Website-IMDb.
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