BFI

The answer to the question posed by the title is generally "no", as this display of comically exaggerated boxing by vaudeville duo The Brothers McNaughton rarely involves any actual contact with the opponent, until right at the end when one of them is finally floored, possibly inadvertently. This is almost certainly an existing stage act reconstructed for the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company's 68mm camera.

One of the brothers, Tom McNaughton (1867-1923), was a popular performer who married stage legend Marie Lloyd's sister Alice in 1894. He is perhaps best known for 'The Three Trees' (1910), a recording that introduces the listener to instruments of the orchestra by applying them to specific animals and scenic objects - a clear precursor to Sergei Prokofiev's celebrated 'Peter and the Wolf' (1936)

Michael Brooke

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