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Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903)  British Film Institute  Main
image of Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903) Production
CompanyPaul's Animatograph Works  A man is run over by a horse
and cab, but despite apparently being trampled underfoot, he
recovers enough to chase the driver responsible.  Show full
synopsis  Compared with the elaborate special effects fantasies
that director W.R. Booth and producer R.W. Paul had already
concocted - The Haunted Curiosity Shop and The Magic Sword (both
1901) being good examples - Extraordinary Cab Accident seems
something of a step back.  It achieves its main effect of a man
being knocked down by a horse-drawn cab through two strategic
jump cuts enabling a dummy to be substituted at the point where
things get nasty - a technique that had been around since 1896,
when pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès (who, like
Booth, started out as a stage magician) found that his camera
had jammed while shooting a street s