The Death of Poor Joe (1901)

A child-crossing sweeper dies in the snow.

Director:

George Albert Smith

Writer:

Charles Dickens (novel)

Stars:

Laura Bayley, Tom Green

Cast

Credited cast:
Laura Bayley	...	Joe (as Mrs. George Albert Smith)
Tom Green	...	Night Watchman

Storyline

A child-crossing sweeper dies in the snow.

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Plot Keywords:

snowstorm | freeze to death | dying in someone's arms | watchman | winter | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

March 1901 (UK)

Also Known As:

Man Meets Ragged Boy

Filming Locations:

Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warwick Trading Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

1 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

User Reviews

The Dickens You Say!

Here we have the earliest surviving film version of a Dickens work, an incident from BLEAK HOUSE.... perhaps. Bits of OLIVER TWIST on screen date from 1897, but they are lost; the 1901 version of A CHISTMAS CAROL does what it can in a couple of minutes, which is not much, unless you know the work.

This one is only a couple of minutes, and its events are pretty much summed up in the title. It's done in one shot, clearly on a stage. It's about as uncinematic as you can get, even for the era. Nonetheless, we'll call it interesting from a historic viewpoint. Dickens stuff translates very well to the screen because his style of story-telling became the model. His work was strongly influenced by the magic lantern, the cinema's precursor and a source of many of its techniques. Nonetheless, unless you are a deep-dyed film history fan, this is not for you.