Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley
| 01 November 1894 (USA)
Annie Oakley Trailers

Annie Oakley was probably the most famous marksman/woman in the world when this short clip was produced in Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Barely five feet tall, Annie was always associated with the wild west, although she was born in 1860 as Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee (or Moses)in Darke County, Ohio. Nevertheless, she was a staple in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and similar wild west companies. Because of her diminutive stature, she was billed as "Little Sure Shot." The man assisting her is this appearance is probably her husband, Frank E. Butler. Annie had outshot Butler (a famous dead-eye marksman himself) in a shooting contest in the 1880's. Instead of nursing his bruised ego because he had been throughly outgunned by a woman, Butler fell in love, married Little Sure Shot, and became her manager.

Reviews
Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
SimonJack What an interesting little piece of very early film by Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope studio. From the start, even the inventors in the communications field had savvy for marketing. What better way to tout the new motion picture camera than to show a legendary person of the time, Annie Oakley, doing what made her famous? Another reviewer noted that Oakley appeared to miss all the glass balls tossed in the air. Indeed, this short shows most of them dropping back down and no splattering fragments from hits. I wonder if that wasn't intentional here. The guy who was tossing them was looking right at them and no more than a few feet from where they would be hit and shattered. He wasn't wearing any kind of eye protection and surely would have been pelted with glass splinters had Oakley hit any of the balls. This studio was a single room building that rotated on tracks to follow the sun. The "Black Maria," as it was called, was a very small space, which made it more dangerous for scenes of rifle shooting. In any event, this was a successful venture for Edison's company. And Annie Oakley continued to entertain the throngs with her dead-eye shooting skills. She performed for crowds that included royalty around the world. For many years, she was a leading draw for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show that performed from 1883 to 1913. Two very good movies have been made about her. "Annie Oakley" of 1935 stars Barbara Stanwyck with a fine cast and a good portrayal of what Buffalo Bill's show must have been like. A 1950 musical comedy biography, "Annie Get Your Gun," stars Betty Hutton and Howard Keel. For those interested in the technical development of the movies, here's how this little short film came about. Thomas Edison's phonograph, invented in 1877, became so popular that he wanted a way to put music with pictures. Of course, it would take more time to perfect that process (the late 1920s), but in 1988 Edison charged his assistant, William Dickson, with the task of creating a motion picture camera. Dickson pulled together the research and technology of British, French and American scientists and researchers, and used the new American technology of celluloid film to make the first motion picture camera.
vukelic-stjepan It is first film where someone is starring. And who is starring there? See title of movie. You don't know who is Annie Oakley? I did not know also, but Annie is interesting girl who made her career with gun. Wikipedia says: ''Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Her "amazing talent"[1] first came to light when the then-15-year-old won a shooting match with traveling-show marksman Frank E. Butler (whom she married). The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show a few years later. Oakley became a renowned international star, performing before royalty and heads of state.'' I am curious, does USA people know who is Annie Oakley, is she recognized know or she is forgotten.
cricket crockett After watching this 18.61-second film 9 times (twice in slow motion), Iv concluded that Annie hits 7 of 8 fixed targets with her first rifle, but NONE of her upwardly-thrown targets (including one lofted up TWICE by her male assistant; you can recycle targets ad infinitum when you always miss) with her second long gun. In defense of this Old West icon, she probably was not used to performing in a small black box, with the injunction to shoot BEFORE aiming in order to keep any possible "hits" within the view of a stationary camera. To meet the minimum review length requirement for this site, I might add that as a co-founder of B.A.N.G.S. (Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps), Annie's troubles in this flick prove that even the best markswoman sometimes needs an AK or Bushwhacker gun. If poor people deserve food just as much as rich people, they merit assault rifles even more so. Which means the government MUST give the indigent gun stamps to help them get the AKs and ample ammo which are now indispensable to survival in modern America. As they say, if you give a gal a fish, she will eat for a day. But if you give her an AK47, she can shoot all the fish in the barrel!
MrCritical1 As the commercial exploitation of the kinetoscope grew, filmmakers realized they needed to produce films that appealed to an audience that included middle-class women. This film was produced with this audience in mind where Oakley demonstrated her awesome marksmanship.Great short film of what is possibly the first film featuring a firearm. Annie Oakley shows off her stuff and looks very good doing it.10* (10* Rating System)