March Melies Madness! - The Mysterious Knight [Le chevalier mystère] (1899)

The conjurer (Méliès) appears at a blackboard and shows the head of a knight on it. He seizes the picture of the head, removes it from the blackboard, and it turns alive, bowing and smiling apparently without a body attached. The conjurer then seizes a sword and runs it completely through the head, entering at the neck and going right through the top of the skull. He then takes the head and places it upon a camera, which is mounted upon a tripod; then throwing a cloak around the legs of the tripod, the young lady to whom the head belongs appears instantly the cloak is removed, with head properly attached to her body. The conjurer then runs toward a door which stands in the middle of the wall, and making a jump in the air, vanishes into space.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224750/