Between Calais and Dover
1897 film by Georges Méliès
Entre Calais et Douvres, known in English both as Between Dover and Calais and as Between Calais and Dover, is an 1897 short silent comedy film by Georges Méliès.
Plot
On the deck of a steamboat labelled "Robert-Houdin Star Line", passengers experience a rough crossing of the English Channel. Among them, a bewhiskered man in a checked suit attempts to fight off seasickness, a heavily bearded clergyman strikes up conversations with upset travelers, and a captain surveys the pandemonium from an upper deck.
Production and release
The film was filmed outside in the garden of Méliès's property in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, with painted scenery. The rolling motion of the ship was created by a special articulated platform, built by Méliès for Sea Fighting in Greece the same year. The placard "Robert-Houdin Star Line" refers to Méliès's Théâtre Robert-Houdin as well as to the trademark for his film business, "Star Film". The set of the film also includes a trademark with the initials "M.R.," referring to Méliès and Lucien Reulos, a colleague who was then Méliès's business partner.
The film features Méliès himself as the man in the checked suit; Georgette Méliès, his daughter, as the young girl with the doll; and Joseph Grapinet, a sculptor from Montreuil, as the man who is holding binoculars in the film's surviving production still. The staging gives an early example of Méliès's talent for planning seemingly chaotic comedy scenes; according to film historian John Frazer, "A rough and tumble choreography had been prepared and rehearsed so that in the midst of the general melee significant actions are successively pointed up." Later, more developed examples of this farce choreography in Méliès's work include scenes in The Cook in Trouble (1904) and The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906).
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 112 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a scène comique à bord d'un paquebot ("comic scene on board a steamship").
“Between Calais and Dover” enters the record as 1897 film by Georges Méliès. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Between, Calais and Dover can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Between Calais and Dover” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Between, Calais and Dover provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1570692. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1904 and 1906.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Between Calais and Dover”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Between Calais and Dover primary sources, Between Calais and Dover archive and Between research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Between Calais and Dover”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Between Calais and Dover” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.