Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race

A large crowd, including a Salvation Army brass band, sees off the six racecars, including a De Dion-Bouton driven by Georges Bourcier de Saint-Chaffray, a Motobloc, a steam automobile, and even a kitchen on wheels, where a black visitor is hurried out before the race begins.

Humans and bears exchange hearty handshakes and conversation, until they notice that the airship Patrie is being blown toward them by the strong wind.

Reaching Germany, the travelers are still unable to make their car work, and call upon a caravan of Romani people to pull it onward for a while.

At last, their car in shambles, carried along by a Paris coachman's nag, they reach the finish line at the Place de la Concorde, where the police chief Louis Lépine and the President of France have arrived to greet them.

[1] Throughout his film career, from 1898's Divers at Work on the Wreck of the "Maine" to 1912's The Conquest of the Pole, the pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès drew freely on topical themes taken from current events; Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race is another example of this technique.

[1] In addition to its real-life inspiration, the plot of Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race was influenced by one of Méliès's own most successful films, the 1905 comedy An Adventurous Automobile Trip.

[5][6] Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race returns to the theme of a madcap automobile journey,[5] and also recalls another successful Méliès film, The Impossible Voyage (1904).

[7] The art historian Paul Hammond described the film as "a sarcastic travelogue", tracing thematic parallels with Alfred Jarry's 1902 novel Supermale.