Aphod’s Believe it or Not (translated from the original Aramaic).
It was basically a movie about supposed supernatural phenomena. There was a cat with two heads, a horse with no legs, a brief shot of a man walking on water, and a juggler who could make the balls turn into birds.
There were a bunch of them pretty soon after films started to be screened commercially, eg The Passion, directed by Lumierre, (France) 1898 and The Passion Play of Oberammergau dir Vincent (America) 1898 - cinema was developing in both places.
They weren't particularly controversial and they were very popular. Early cinema was basically following on from theatre, and there had been an accepted European cultural tradition of depictions of Jesus death dating back to Medieval times, aka Passion Plays, and of course Christmas Nativity plays.
So films using this template did very well. You soon see longer ones through the silent era.
If your criteria allows for short films and ones from other languages, the five minute film La Passion Du Christ fits. It’s from the 1800’s, which was so long ago people were probably going to drive-in theaters on their horses to see it.
Horses not having radios is a tragedy no one should ever joke about. I don’t care how long ago it was. We’ve moved on from such foal nonsense and society’s put it’s hoof down. You either saddle up or bite the bit and accept your joke isn’t mane stream.
Definitely not, though that's often cited in old textbooks.
The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906 was over an hour long, and screened as one film in both Australia and Britain. Bunch of others from various countries before 1915 as well.
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