Rogues' Tricks

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Rogues’ Tricks is a 1907 French short silent comedy directed by Georges Méliès. In the film, Méliès plays the owner of an elegant house. Two vagrants break in and hide as the owner scolds his housemaid. A glazier arrives to fix the window, and while he works, the thieves slip into the bathroom and hide under the tub cover.

The owner lights a hot-water heater and a jet of hot water blasts into the tub. Startled, the thieves jump around, and the owner tries to trap them by sitting on the cover, but they wriggle free and the owner ends up in the bath himself. He chases after them, they hide again in a closet, and chaos continues with a crash of glass and a rifle shot that hits the maid before the closet topples.

This is a broad comedy with little in the way of special effects—mostly two substitution splices and some pyrotechnics. It’s notable for being a rare film where Méliès plays a character who is not in control and ends up foiled, unlike some of his fantasy films.

The film was released by Star Film Company and is cataloged as 909–911. It was shown in the U.S. as Rogues’ Tricks and in the U.K. as The Burglar’s Bath; the surviving print uses Rogues’ Tricks on the title card. A restoration supervised by David Shepard, with a Photoplayer accompaniment by Joe Rinaudo, was released on home video in 2008 as part of a Méliès collection.