Plagiarized Chase About Chasing a Thief

Pathé was stealing a lot of scenarios from Gaumont during the era, of which "The Policemen's Little Run" is one example (at least, according to the documentary "Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché" (2018)); it being plagiarized from Alice Guy's "The Race for the Sausage" (1907). In both, a dog (ironically, given this film itself comes from theft) steals a piece of meat from a butcher and is chased all over town, including through the domestic space of someone's home. Both end with an emblematic shot of the canine enjoying the stolen goods. This is not to say that Pathé doesn't do some things better in its version. The continuity editing of the chase is basically of comparable competence in both, including some slight crosscutting, reverse angles, and following the rules of the axis of action across shots, of which there are 25 in this film compared to Gaumont's 15 (by my count). The cut to the supposed opposite side a rooftop here, which is actually just a jump cut to the same set and camera position is awkward and lazy, but the gag of the dog and pursuers climbing a building is a novel addition, with tricks shots to complete the illusion.

Employing entirely policemen for those chasing the dogs, instead of the entirety of the townsfolk in the original, is different, too, and one may clearly see where Mack Sennett and company got their inspiration for the Keystone Kops. The setting for the home they enter is better in this version, too, including interrupting a man's sleep. These chase films were popular with early movie-goers and important in the development of continuity editing and the narrative cinema. While all of them are essentially reworking the same chase formula, all of them aren't as demonstratively imitative as this one; yet, even here, there's some noteworthy deviation.