Look Who it Was Random video

The Magic Glass (1914) | BFI National Archive

2,964 views · Published 28 December 2016 · 11:31 · Indexed 25 October 2026

Channel: BFI · 2016 · Film & Animation

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An inventor develops a magnifying glass that can see though solid objects, but when he uses it on his family it proves more curse than boon...

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An X-ray magnifying glass? What could possibly go wrong? This story - one of numerous early films to make comic hay with mad inventions - relies on a common cinematic trick. A vignette shows the view through the magnifying glass in a 'door' or 'wall', so the inventor spies his son stealing food from the cupboard or the maid helping herself to the brandy. Inevitably the tables soon turn...

This comedy from the studio of Cecil Hepworth was one of many directed in the early 1910s by Hay Plumb with the same cast and crew.

This video is part of the Orphan Works collection. When the rights-holder for a film cannot be found, that film is classified as an Orphan Work. Find out more about Orphan Works: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/orphan_works/index_en.htm   This is in line with the EU Orphan Works Directive of 2012. The results of our search for the rights holder of this film can be found in the EU Orphan Works Database: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/orphan-works-database 

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