The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903) User Reviews

A wild and crazy Sex Comedy,...at least by 1903 standards!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 September 2006]

I have used this short silent clip as part of my lessons on the history of cinema with my American History students. And while it isn't the most exciting or technically adept film of the day, it's pretty funny today and shows hard far our sexual mores have changed in only about a century. It's really great as social commentary.

Two ladies enter a shoe store. The younger one tries on a shoe. As the salesman places it on her, he exposes her ankle and even a tiny portion of her calf!! And, naturally, he loses control of himself and attacks her--only to be beaten into submission by the older woman! Funny stuff and the teens I teach think it's a real hoot!

Cute Early Joke Film

[JoeytheBrit · 7/10 · 8 December 2008]

I suppose today 'The Amorous Shoe Clerk' would be a more accurate title for this one-scene comedy film from film pioneer Edwin S. Porter. It's quite an amusing little skit, featuring an early screen kiss and an early use of the close-up. Apart from this and, as another reviewer has pointed out, the need for care in the timing to make the joke work, the film is fairly unremarkable. Nevertheless every film, no matter how short, deserves at least ten lines according to the powers at IMDb, so here I am typing away and hoping for the best before I press the Preview button... Damn... Porter sort of faded away, you know. He was the biggest thing in movies during much of its first decade but, like Griffith 20 years later, he failed to evolve in line with the cinema. (surely that must be enough?)

Is it worth getting whacked . . .

[cricket30 · 7/10 · 25 March 2013]

. . . eleven times with an umbrella to see the Wicked-Witch-of-the-East type stockings of an over-dressed old maidy-looking chick, and maybe getting a peck in on her cheek? Of course, with the Edison film exploitation flicks, you never REALLY know what you are getting. For instance, there was one about a spinster posing for a picture in a portrait studio who was so UGLY she made the picture collage, mirror, and clock fall off the wall by just LOOKING at them, before breaking the camera! It turns out this so-called "woman" actually was played by a man! No doubt the LADY DISROBES ON TRAPEZE also actually was a man, and since the alleged female shoe shopper in THE GAY STORE CLERK is uncredited--along with her feisty, umbrella-wielding mom, both of these anonymous actors COULD BE MEN. At least today when you have transvestites, movie regulations have to inform the viewer who's what (i.e., everyone knows that the Robin Williams playing MRS. DOUBTFIRE is REALLY a man, even though he has a girl's name).

Simple, But Amusing Enough

[Snow Leopard · 25 August 2004]

The idea here is pretty simple, but it is set up rather well, and thus the movie is amusing enough despite the limited material and running time. Early film-makers often made watchable pictures just by taking a basic idea like this, thinking of an appropriate setting, and pacing it out properly. Something like this might be used a brief scene in a movie of the present time, but in its own era it stands up well enough on its own.

The story starts with the shoe clerk waiting on a flirtatious young woman, and it then follows the subsequent developments. Nothing fancy or brilliant, but it did require some care, planning, and timing to make it work. It is also a very simple example demonstrating that it is possible to convey characters' amorous intentions by very simple means, without using explicit material.

interesting

[mrdonleone · 7/10 · 1 January 2009]

it's really funny to see some situation like that even in an old flick like this it's a bit unfair for the poor shoe clerk he is a perfect example of the hard working man that ultimately gets fired because he cannot stay of the little bonuses of his work its a kind of fairy tale because if you watch it today you can understand many other things about it I think it's about life itself you work hard and you earn your money but if you want to enjoy life a bit you get punched on the nose my life story in a movie we could have learned other things if the gay shoe clerk wouldn't have done what he did but the director chose to depict the situation like this it's not the question why it's about how we handle things we didn't suspect

Pretty strange

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 3 June 2016]

"The Gay Shoe Clerk" is an American black-and-white film from 1903, so this one is already almost 115 years old. It will not come as a surprise to anybody that it is a silent black-and-white film and only runs for a minute as they usually did back then. We have a shoe salesman at the store and two female customers come to his place. But they may be more than just customers with what happens at the end. I guess this is what Al Bundy would have looked like at the turn of the century back in the day. And younger audiences should not be confused by the title, the man is not a homosexual, he is just a happy man enjoying his profession and the company of the two women. I personally did not really enjoy the watch though. A bit awkward and not funny I must say. Thumbs down. There's better films from that era out there too.

Sex in cinema - the beginnings?

[OldAle1 · 8/10 · 16 January 2009]

The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903) offers early romantic comedy as the clerk in question tries to get a little too friendly with his young female client, only to be clopped on the head by her severe mother. The timing was good, and there is a subtle eroticism in the way his hand slowly pushes up her skirt to reveal her stockings...

The copy I watched was from the "Treasures of American Cinema", Volume I (first disc), and like everything else on the set is impeccably transferred and well-scored, with excellent documentation. To the lover of early cinema, or anyone who wants to explore the byways of American film in general, it's an indispensable set.

Porter and Smith's Close-Ups

[Cineanalyst · 7 February 2010]

Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Company's "The Gay Shoe Clerk" demonstrates the influence of British filmmaker George Albert Smith. This film is essentially a remake, or reworking, of Smith's "As Seen Through a Telescope" (1900); it uses the same three-shot plot, including a close-up in the middle, and the joke of a man being punished for looking at a woman's ankle while she lifts her dress. The setting was changed from a man outside using a telescope to view the leg in Smith's film to the inside of shoe store. Porter would've presumably seen Smith's film through the duping practices of the Edison Company, who stole Smith's film and distributed it as "The Professor and His Field Glass". Historian Charles Musser ("Before the Nickelodeon") says that Porter may have also been influenced by a Biograph subject, tellingly titled, "Don't Get Gay with Your Manicure" (1902/03).

More interestingly are the differences between the close-ups in Porter and Smith's films. The one in "As Seen Through a Telescope" is a masked point-of-view (POV) shot. Porter's view is not masked and is not a POV from any character's perspective, but is an ordinary ("invisible") close-up, matching-on-action, which isn't explained within the narrative, as a POV shot is. Standard film-making nowadays, but not in 1903. Yet, not even this use of the close-up was Porter's invention. The same fellow Smith had used the same kind of insert close-up in the middle of his three-shot film "The Little Doctors" (1901) (now a lost film), which he remade as "Sick Kitten" (1903). Additionally, Porter had previously inserted a close-up of a fire alarm being pulled in "Life of an American Fireman" (1903).

"The Gay Shoe Clerk" is imitative, but not deplorable as were the dupes and shot-for-shot remakes also made by the Edison Company and other studios. It remains well made for 1903 and an amusing exploitation of cinema viewing's voyeuristic nature, with the punitive gag of the character being repeatedly hit for looking at the woman's leg, while we moviegoers get away unscathed.

SO unbelievable!!!

[booyah-1991 · 9/10 · 6 January 2006]

I thought that back in the early 1900s, there would be a kissing scene. For instance, the clerk kissed the lady, who was trying on the shoes, and beats the crap out of him! I thought that films in the early 1900s would be like on stage performances, but, for me, this was SO unexpected.

The reason that for me, this is so unexpected, is because I thought that films made in the early silent movie era would be like no kissing, just stage performances.

But, I still like this film because it was like the first freaking time I saw kissing in an early 1900s film, made in 1903.

9/10

Not as great as people are making it out to be.

[Tornado_Sam · 28 October 2017]

I can't understand why this is such a popular film except for the fact that it does feature an early closeup that shows clearly what is still going on in the scene. This was a technique developed by G. A. Smith in his "The Sick Kitten" and indeed this short is according to some a remake of Smith's "As Seen Through a Telescope". It's a sex comedy that is pretty harmless today but was shocking for its time. Anyway, I've seen more creative one-gag movies from early cinema but the joke here really isn't that funny and comes up very basic. The lighting is really bad which makes it come across as serious until the 'joke' at the end. One of the best things about it is that the closeup is very effective and given the surviving print, it looks very good. The joke is really cheap though.

Yes, That's an Early Close-Up

[Michael_Elliott · 26 July 2010]

Gay Shoe Clerk, The (1903)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Edison short is probably one of the better known films from this era. It shows a shoe clerk working when two ladies, apparently a mother and daughter, come into the store. The clerk is putting a shoe on the younger woman who raises her dress where he gets to see a bit of her leg, which makes him lean forward and kiss her only to have the other woman attack him. That's pretty much all we've got here but I guess you could call this one of the earliest sex comedies as it appears the film certainly wants to show off the sexiness of the woman raising her dress. It's also worth noting that the legend of D.W. Griffith inventing the close-up is pretty much thrown out the window here as the lifting of the dress is done so with a close-up. You certainly can't compare this to more current sex comedies but even though this is over 100-years-old it's still pretty funny.

Hilarious for its time

[mdnrules · 12 July 2001]

For some reason or another, I happened to catch this little flick somewhere not too long ago.

It is basically a shoe salesman that is seduced by a women customer's good looks (who, by today's standards, really doesn't look that great at all) and proceeds to help her try on shoes. Part of the woman's dress slips and shows a third of her leg, which then the camera cuts to the man's face showing a really goofy suprised look on his face. Then the manager comes around and smacks him with an umbrella. Ouch!

Judging by the fact it was mildly amusing to watch this one minute video today, I'm sure it was absolutely hilarious about 100 years ago. Pretty decent camera work considering that no one back then was really a professional "cameraman." The whole thing seems pretty Chaplin-ish. Your typical short goofy comedy. Consider it a decent camera experiment, as that's all it really is. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.

Very Relevant

[shouvick-koley · 13 December 2009]

The birth of cinema came to be for the pure value of a viewer having the capability to escape to another world without actually travelling there in real-time. As cinema evolves so does its various techniques. Films started out as series photography which Edward Muybridge perfected. With the emergence of cinema, many directors who were photographers previously came to play in the field of cinema. Directors however thought of new ways to amplify their techniques to create an even better form of visual pleasure for their films. How is this film not relevant? This is first multi-shot film with 3 full shots and it uses a Point of view shot as one of them. People need to really think before they talk. This film is a great achievement at the time.

Not that funny or historically interesting

[bob the moo · 21 April 2007]

With a title that suggests a Channel 4 documentary film, this short is actually a quick sketch that is all very cheeky and funny I'm sure but hasn't really stood the test of time at all. It features a bit of a build up and some good facial expressions and finishes with the clerk of the title getting rebuked (with an umbrella) for taking liberties with his customer. It is very short and is done with just a static camera shot so I was wondering what the lasting value of it was other than being part of a bigger history. I didn't find it particularly clever or funny and, with other UK silent shorts I could be watching to see how they built the foundations, I didn't think there had been much point in seeking this one out.