Director: Segundo de Chomón

Synopsis: A traveller entertains his hosts at an inn with a magic sword.

Segundo de Chomón was Spain’s answer to Georges Méliès, although his trick films were generally inferior to Méliès‘. In Flema inglesa, which literally translates as British Phlegm, we see a traveller entertain his hosts at an inn, by using some kind of magic sword to perform all manner of tricks. Tired after his performance, the traveller goes to bed, but one of the staff pinches his sword as he sleeps and tries to perform a few tricks of his own with disastrous results. The tricks here are pretty old hat – stop-motion photography mostly, which Méliès and others (and de Chomón) had been doing for well over a decade. It might have entertained young kids back in 1910, but it won’t impress anyone today.

(Reviewed 7th March 2012)