The more I watch George Albert Smith's work, the more impressed I am with just how revolutionary Georges Méliès was to film. The two men apparently corresponded, being in the same general line of work of public spectacle on opposing sides of the English Channel. Smith, like many good showmen being something of a con artist, repurposes Méliès' jump cut technique into something flimsier and cheaper, complete with a hastily-assembled box labeled "X RAYS" on the side. Smith really ought to be considered more of a popularizer than an innovator for early cinema, which is an important role in its own right but maybe not the one he'd prefer that we remember him for.
Still, for as much as this…