Le Puits Fantastique (France 1903,Dir.Georges Melies,Film Co.Star Film Co., Townspeople are seen walking past the village well. A man and a mule [the latter obviously a person in a mule costume] stop nearby as the man prepares to get water. An old crone accosts the man and begs a hand-out, but the man indignantly refuses. As he turns back to deal with his mule, the crone reveals herself a witch and curses the well, then exits, shaking her fist. The man returns and fetches water, but when he pours it from the well bucket into his own bucket, the water turns to flame. Simultaneously, a demon appears over the well, laughing at the man. As the man rushes at the well, the demon disappears, and the well suddenly surges out of the ground into the sky like Jack's beanstalk. Two snakes [hand puppets] spring out of the side of the well and taunt the man, then vanish. Three demons appear, jeer at the man, and disappear. The base of the well opens up and a dragon emerges, roars, grabs the man by the foot, and attempts to pull him in. Then four human-sized frogs crawl out of the well, encircle the man, seize him, fling him in, and dance away. The man climbs out. The well slides away, then vanishes, replaced by the laughing demon. The villagers arrive and join the man in attempting to capture the demon, but he turns into a bat and flies away. This is a brief but highly enjoyable little movie from that great French filmmaking pioneer, George Melies. As usual, there are no intertitles, and the camera sits so far from the actors that you feel like a spectator in the back row of a theater, but the plot, concerning a witch's revenge on a man who scorns her, is easy to follow. It's basically a horror story, but charming and funny, that is unless you're frightened by snake sock-puppets and men dressed as enormous frogs. Buffs will recognize the "Melies dragon" which pops up in other films, such as his PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. The only problem here is the poor condition of the image. In surviving prints [or at least the one I've seen] the picture is grainy and badly washed-out, but once you've had a moment to adjust it's alright. When the Melies operation went out of business in 1914 all his original negatives were scattered, literally hundreds of films lost, and it was decades before attempts were made to rescue and restore the survivors. Too bad, but the spirit behind these delightful works comes across, and one can still enjoy what's left.