| The Cheese Mites | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot from the film | |
| Directed by | F. Martin Duncan |
| Produced by | Charles Urban |
| Cinematography | F. Martin Duncan |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 2.5 mins extant |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | Silent |
The Cheese Mites (1903) is a Britishshortsilentdocumentary film, produced byCharles Urban and directed byF. Martin Duncan.
A gentleman is put off his lunch when he holds up a magnifying glass and sees a microscopic view of thecheese mites in hisStilton cheese sandwich.
The film "was the sensation of the first public programme of scientific films in Britain shown at theAlhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square, London, in August 1903". According to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "its claim to being scientific lay in its being shot through a microscope, revealing to a lay audience sights that would normally only have been available to owners of microscopes."[1][2]
A complete copy which includes an opening sequence, featuring F. Martin Duncan as the gentleman, was discovered uploaded to YouTube under a different title, and has now been acquired by theBritish Film Institute. Previously only the sequence showing the cheese mites was known to have survived.