Diagonaldi Very well executed

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.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) If you compare this 1909 6-minute movie to Georges Méliès, you will see that they have basically nothing in common anymore. the reason was probably that film was developing so quickly into new directions that the old legends had trouble to keep up with the medium. First of all, this is not a one man show anymore like almost everything else he did. Actually Méliès own son plays a character here. And then there are the colors of course, probably the most innovative factor. Still, all of this did not really save this film. I was not too impressed watching this and certainly do not consider it among Méliès finest works. This was already almost at the end of Méliès career and when a couple years later sound became a factor, he did not go along with the new changes, but simply stopped making movies. But it's fine that way. he still left us an admirable body of work. Nonetheless, I do not consider "The Diabolic Tenant" among his most outstanding achievements.

Michael_Elliott Devilish Tenant, The (1909) aka Locataire diabolique, Le *** (out of 4)Georges Melies film about a man who rents an apartment and furnishes the entire thing with one box. It's easy to see how the trickery was done in this film but that doesn't take away from the fun. The real highlight is the wonderful ending of how the man finally gets rid of everything.In early 2008 a box set with over 170 Meiles films will be released and it's certainly long overdue.

MartinHafer Only recently have I discovered the marvelous and very early films of the French genius Méliès. I call him a genius because his films are so inventive, so different and unique that he clearly transcended his contemporaries. Whereas the average films of his day were almost plot less and dull by today's standards, many of his films are still terrific in the 21st century.This movie, named THE DEVILISH TENNENT in Enlish, is packed full of the most amazing trick camera-work and even features hand colored cels--giving it a color look well before the days of Technicolor. Sure the color isn't perfect, but for its day it was amazing--especially since all six minutes of the film is in color--not just a tiny portion. And when it comes to camera tricks, the entire movie is one trick after another! A man moves into an apartment with just a suitcase. But, it's magical and he is able to pull out paintings, furniture, a piano, a fireplace and eventually even his entire family out of the suitcase--in a most convincing fashion for 1909. Then, later when he doesn't have the money for the rent, he packs everything up and disappears--leaving a BIG surprise for his landlord! This is just one of those "you gotta see it to believe it films"--as no review can do this amazing work justice.If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.

Snow Leopard This colorful and creative Georges Méliès feature takes a basic gag idea and uses it as the basis for several minutes of interesting and entertaining camera tricks. It is also one of the few surviving Méliès movies that have hand-tinted color, and while the color of the print has now somewhat faded, it still looks good enough to enhance the overall effect.The story starts with a man renting an unfurnished room, and then most of it is simply a wide variety of visual effects as the tenant furnishes his new apartment with things that he amazingly pulls out of a carpetbag. It's interesting and very detailed, and if you've ever seen "Mary Poppins", the basic effect is remarkably similar to the scene in which Mary moves into the Banks home and furnishes her room. The special effects in Méliès's movie are not as polished, but on the other hand it gets even more mileage out of the idea.This feature was made somewhat later than were most of Méliès's best-known movies, but it's easily one of the finest efforts of his later years as a film-maker. It takes one basic idea and makes it into an interesting and imaginative film.