CN MOVIES CONTINUE SCREEN FIRSTS SEASON

CN MOVIES' Vintage Movie Channel (www.cnmovies.com) continue their Screen Firsts season with a look at the original inspiration for Lassie, 'Rescued by Rover'.
The British made short, co-directed by Lewin Fitzhamon and pioneering producer-director Cecil Hepworth, has all the Hollywood ingredients of dramatic narrative and was the first time a dog appeared as the star of a movie.
The film tells the story of Rover, a remarkable dog who saves a young baby after it is kidnapped by an old gypsy woman. Not only that, but the clever canine manages to bring the miscreants to justice as well. Co-producer and cinematographer Cecil Hepworth, also appears in this great example of early cinema, as the baby's father.
Other Screen Firsts featured on the Vintage Movie Channel include a look at the first jazz movies, comedy films and pop videos, the first dramatic and character animations, the first movie portraying a criminal - 'The Life of Charles Peace' and the first Tarzan film - Tarfoot of the Apes.
Other features on the Vintage Movie Channel include: Hollywood Greats & Bloopers - with early footage from Hollywood stars such as Abbott and Costello, Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan; Cartoons & Cliffhanger Specials - starting with the original 1941 Superman animated cartoons produced by Dave and Max Fleischer; rare Silent Classics from the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton and Rudolph Valentino; and Themed Vintage Feature Movies, including Robert Weine's 1919 classic 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse. (CD)