15 Odd 'Firsts' In Movie History We Never Would Have Thought Of

As a director, Mel Brooks has always pushed the boundaries of acceptability, and he seems to take a particular delight in using movies to explore the vulgar, the silly, and the downright ridiculous. Blazing Saddles, a riotous spoof of the Western genre, is a particularly notable example of this phenomenon, and even today it manages to be both scandalizing and hilarious. Among other things, it is notable for including a scene in which a group of cowboys, seated around a fire, begin to break wind, making this the first instance of an audible American fart in the movies. Mel Brooks, with his characteristic wit (and awareness of the historic nature of his own films), perhaps put it best when he said: ““Blazing Saddles, for me, was a film that truly broke ground. It also broke wind… and maybe that’s why it broke ground.”

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho remains a profoundly frightening and disturbing film, and it is arguably one of his best. The story of a young man’s tormented and murderous psychology - and the women who fall afoul of him - tapped into 1960s anxieties about gender, sexuality, and even motherhood. The shower scene, where Norman Bates - in the guise of his deceased mother - stabs the distraught Marion to death, is unforgettable. Shocking as the moment is, however, it is matched by the image of a toilet flushing, which was (and, to an extent still is) a rare thing to see in focus on the screen. As he always did, Hitchcock aimed to shock his audience out of their complacency. In focusing on the toilet, he earned himself yet another place in the movie history books, as this was the first time such a thing had been done in the movies, largely because the Hays Code, which dictated what could and could not be shown, forbade such a vulgar image.

A little-known 1933 Czech film, Ecstasy, earned its place in the movie history books by being the first non-p*rnographic movie to feature a woman experiencing an orgasm. Viewers see only the face of the woman, played by Hedy Lemarr. Unsurprisingly, the film earned its fair share of criticism from those who saw it as endangering public morals. Even the pope chimed in to condemn it. But Ecstasy also had its fair share of supporters, and managed to attain some distribution in the United States (without the approval of censors).

Almost from the beginning, people have worried about cinema's potential to corrupt society. In 1896, the 18-second film The Kiss led to such a controversy. As its title suggests, this short film from Thomas Edison features two people kissing, though the actual lips touch for only about two seconds. Despite the brevity, the film scandalized many because it seemed to demonstrate how movies could change the way people perceived reality. At the same time, it was a bona fide hit for Edison, who had an almost unmatched knack for tapping into what the public wanted.

Director Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon is a period drama that follows the exploits of its title character, an Irish rogue who starts to climb the social ladder. What sets the film apart, however, is just how much it immerses the viewer in the world of the 18th century, right down to its lighting and atmosphere. In large part, this can be chalked up to Kubrick’s decision to light all of his interior scenes exclusively with candles, a first in the cinema. As always with Kubrick, this caused some difficulties, but if the final product is anything to go by, they were more than worth it.

Even if you don't recognize the name, you've probably heard the “Wilhelm scream.” Though it’s often used for comic effect - and it is, to be sure, a very funny sound - it's also unearthly and almost inhuman, which makes it just as disturbing as it is hilarious. This sound effect emerged in the 1951 movie Distant Drums where, appropriately enough, it is emitted by a minor character who is eaten by crocodiles. The effect gets its name, however, from a 1953 Western, The Charge at Feather River, in which a character named Private Wilhelm is hit in the leg with an arrow. From there, it become a staple of movies in various genres.

The spit take, one of the most frequently used gags in physical comedy, occurs when a character, confronted with some new or shocking information while in the middle of a drink, then sprays the liquid everywhere. It has become associated in particular with the comedy star Danny Thomas. However, it has even deeper roots than most people realize. In fact, its first noted appearance is in the 1906 film Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, and thanks to the actor Jack Brawn remains etched into film history. It’s hard to imagine physical comedy without it, and at the moment Brendan Fraser holds the record for the most spit takes (it happens twice in Monkeybone and once in The Mummy).

The unclothed human body has a long history in the movies, going all the way back to L’Inferno, a 1911 Italian silent film. The film, based on Dante's literary work, depicts the obscene, the beautiful, and the damned. Notably, it features what is most likely the first male nude in the movies. As a whole, the film is a reminder of the heady days of early cinema, when everything was possible and permissible.

The Manchurian Candidate focuses on a vet returning from the Korean conflict who slowly discovers he’s been brainwashed and turned into a weapon for the Communists. It features stunning work from its cast, particularly Angela Lansbury, who plays the ruthless and cunning Mrs. Iselin. It is also notable for featuring what was, by some accounts, the first martial arts fight in an American movie, between Frank Sinatra’s Bennett Marco and Henry Silva’s Chunjin. It’s an explosive moment in the film in what is otherwise a tightly woven, suspenseful drama. The adrenaline-pulsing sequence is a reminder of the heady stakes of the film’s central conflict.

Though flying can be infuriating, entertainment can provide relief from long flight times, limited seat room, and stale circulated air. Today, most airplanes offer a large selection of films you can watch on a screen built into the seat in front of you (if you haven't already dowloaded films or shows to watch on your own tablet, computer, or phone). In-flight movies didn’t become a part of the flying experience until 1961, introduced by Trans World Airlines. The film chosen to pioneer this new consumer product was By Love Possessed, a sumptuous melodrama starring Lana Turner in which her character, Marjorie, begins an affair with her husband’s business partner. The technology itself was pioneered by David Flexer, who wanted to make flying less boring.

Movie history is filled with famous animal stars such as Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and the many creatures who regularly appear in animated movies geared toward children. Although cats haven’t been quite as popular as their canine counterparts, they are still a number of famous felines, including Morris the Cat. The very first famous cat, however, was Pepper. She was born on the soundstage of Keystone Studios, founded by Mack Sennett, and as soon as she inadvertently wandered onto the stage while filming, he knew she was a star. She would go on to appear in numerous movies produced by Sennett’s studios, which became synonymous with the comedy style known as slapstick. Pepper found true stardom, however, in A Little Hero, in which she was paired with Teddy the Dog. She would go on to work with some of the biggest Hollywood stars, including Charlie Chaplin.

Although streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max might still seem like fairly new ways to watch movies, streaming has a surprisingly deep history, going all the way back to David Blair's film Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees. Though the movie was originally released in 1992, it was uploaded onto the nascent internet in 1993. Obviously, the quality was nothing like what viewers encounter today, but even so it was a major technical achievement, and set the stage for the many films, both legitimate and not, that populated the internet in the following decades.

Actors like Mike Myers have made a name for themselves by playing multiple roles in the same film (most notably, for Myers, in the various films in the Austin Powers series). However, even Myers would be hard-pressed to play 12 different characters, as Priyanka Chopra does in the 2009 Hindi-language film What’s Your Raashee? The comedy is about a man who must marry to save his brother, and meets a prospective bride from each sign in the zodiac. The twist? Each bride is played by Chopra. But despite Chopra’s commitment to the part(s), the film wasn’t a success. As she would later note: "I would be lying if I said [that the] What's Your Raashee? failure didn't impact me. It did. It broke my heart because there was a lot that went into the making of the film.”

Hollywood has tried many gimmicks over its long history to draw in more audiences, including 4D, pioneered by The Sensorium in 1984. This movie-going experience took place at a Six Flags theme park in Baltimore housed in an old power plant. The 4D experience was meant to be truly immersive, with seats that shook, smells that wafted through the theater, and extreme sound effects. The plot of The Sensorium, about popular entertainment from the beginning of the 20th century, was ultimately far less important than the technology. The theme park shut down in 1987.

If there’s one thing most moviegoers can agree on, it’s this: It costs too much to go to the movies. However, not every film costs actual money to get into, illustrated by the 2015 film Dope. The film, a blend of coming-of-age drama and comedy, was notable for many things, not the least of which was its cast, which included such well-known rap figures as A$AP Rocky and Tyga. However, it also has the distinction of being the first theatrically released film to accept cryptocurrency. This is entirely fitting, as cryptocurrency is a part of the plot. The exact mechanics of how the process worked are still unclear, in keeping with the arcane nature of cryptocurrency itself.