Over the Hedge (1905) User Reviews

Disappointing.

[addick-2 · 4/10 · 1 March 2002]

Made around the same time as the excellent 'Rescued by Rover' this is a lame example of the one joke fodor that was being mass produced at the time. Little time or thought went into either the setting up, or the execution of the punchline and the film as a whole has little of interest to the student of film.

A disappointment

[JoeytheBrit · 3/10 · 15 June 2009]

This was made by Cecil Hepworth in the same year that he produced Rescued by Rover, and it seems incredible that the same filmmaker could make films of such varying quality in the space of one year. The entire film is basically working up towards a punchline which is as unfunny and uninteresting as the build-up before it. A courting couple on a picnic are prevented from enjoying a romantic liaison by their matronly chaperone, so when she falls asleep they sneak behind a hedge, leaving their hats visible at opposite ends of it so that, when she wakes up, the chaperone believes they are sitting far apart (as, undoubtedly, you would in her position). This one's pretty disappointing, it has to be said.

Not Very Good

[Snow Leopard · 2 April 2002]

This one doesn't work very well, even considering its era. The whole film is only there to set up one gag, but it's not even a very good gag, and it's not carried out very well either. You always want to be charitable in evaluating these earliest films, because they did not usually have a lot to work with, and because almost everything they did was new at the time. But "The Other Side of the Hedge" comes across as routine and rather sloppy even by the standards of the era. Most other Hepworth-produced films had much more energy and creativity than this one does.

A very dull film from Hepworth

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 14 September 2006]

Of all the early film producers, those of Hepworth are generally among the better films to watch in the 21st century. Unlike MOST of the films of Edison and Lumiere, their films often had cute stories or a good sense of humor. It was in this light that I saw this film and saw it as a complete waste of time. Three people are having a picnic and NOTHING of any interest occurs. Absolutely freaking nothing! This is not too atypical of some of the early films, but Hepworth must have been caught napping or just scraped up some old deleted scenes to produce this. This film is SO DULL that it's not even of much interest to film historians. Find another early film--they're not all this pointless.

Weren't they past these one-gag films by 1905?

[Tornado_Sam · 22 September 2017]

"Over the Hedge" is a short that is a good example of the one-gag films early filmmakers were creating during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These early films featured a gag that was never relatively funny, but for an early film audiences were entertained since it was better than seeing workers leaving a factory or a train arriving. I'm guessing that by the time this film was made these early gag films were out of style, however, and so a film like this would've worked better if it had been made years earlier, say in 1899 or so.

The film is all about some people, two women and a man, going on a picnic. One of the women is in love with the man so they hatch a plot to steal away from their companion so the two can make out. Where do they go to? Read the title.

While the gag this film has is at least original, it was made at too late a time in filmmaking to be of any interest. This was after "The Great Train Robbery" , "A Trip to the Moon" and Hepworth's own "Rescued by Rover". It could be possible that the short is fragmentary and the fat lady originally found out what they were up to...who knows?

Pretty pointless stuff all round

[bob the moo · 21 April 2007]

Three people are having a picnic are together but it is very clear that the young man and woman are eager to steal away from their companion to, err, appreciate nature.

It sounds like a setup for a punch-line and the short running time suggested to me that this is just what it would be and it is what it looks like it is going to be. So imagine my disappointment (go on, imagine it) when the film ends with nothing of note having happened. The couple move away from their companion when she lies down for a nap; that's your lot – thanks for coming. It is weird because a lot of the Hepworth films have elements of comedy in there and this one just had nothing at all. Historically I doubt it has any cinematic value other than being from the Hepworth company because there doesn't appear to be anything being tried or experimented with either.

Not sure what happened with this one to make it of no interest or why anyone bothered to make it but other than being a short film from a famous character in UK silent cinema history, this is of no real value.