The Doctor's Secret (1910)

A morbidly corpulent man undergoes an experimental, state-of-the-Art weight loss treatment...what could possibly go wrong? Nothing at all (he said with his fingers crossed)...

Early auteur George Melies doesn't even try for subtlety on this one-this simple tale of an experimental weight loss cure descends straight into sheer physics-defying burlesque in a manner that Charlie Chaplain himself might consider just a little over the top. I cannot believe that later animators such as Chuck Jones, Walter Lantz and Charles Fleischer were not influenced by this film in their early careers...Silent, B&W.