| 2 A. M. in the Subway | |
|---|---|
 Film still | |
| Directed by | Billy Bitzer |
| Starring | Sidney Olcott |
Release date |
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Running time | 53 sec |
| Country | United States |
2 A. M. in the Subway is a one shot, 53 second-longcomedy filmed, and probably directed, byBilly Bitzer on June 5, 1905 at theAmerican Mutoscope and Biograph Company's (AM&B) studio on14th Street inNew York City.[1] Likely intended as a slightly racy, and therefore rather typical, subject for AM&B's peepshow machine,The Mutoscope,2 A. M. in the Subway is avignette of New York City'snight life that still resonates with New Yorkers more than a century later.
A tiredcop and a subwayconductor are seen waiting at asubway platform, late at night. The conductor opens the doors to the train at left, and out steps an obviouslydrunk man, played bySidney Olcott,[2] carried between two women infancy dress. The cop begins to mix it up with the three of them, and they are interrupted by another man in abowler hat; he is carrying a large package and steps onto the train to the right after greeting the two women and the drunk man. One of the women steps forward into the frame and lifts up her skirt so that the drunk man can tie hershoe. This gets the attention of the cop, who hustles the three of them onto the train; meanwhile what appears to be a pair ofbare legs stick out from a window of a train car and are quickly withdrawn. The cop just manages to notice this, and calls all parties back out to the platform where it is revealed that the man in the bowler hat has a pair ofdepartment storemannequin's legs with him.
On May 21, 1905,Billy Bitzer had made his filmInterior N.Y. subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. from the front of aNew York City Subway car; at that point theSubway itself had been open only seven months. The very day that subject was submitted forcopyright, this one was made at theBiograph studio; it was copyrighted on 20 June. Although the sixactors involved are unidentified, aside fromSidney Olcott, the action is obviously tightly coordinated in order to get all of the action into such a short subject.
AM&B sent twopaper prints of this film for copyright, and the better of the two copies was rephotographed forpreservation.[3]