Watch the Earliest-Recognized Charles Dickens Movie: The Demise of Poor Joe

A lit­tle over a decade in the past, a cura­tor on the British Movie Insti­tute (BFI) dis­cov­ered the previous­est sur­viv­ing movie fea­tur­ing a Charles Dick­ens char­ac­ter, “The Demise of Poor Joe.” The silent movie, direct­ed by George Albert Smith in 1900, brings to life Dick­ens’ char­ac­ter Jo, the cross­ing sweep­er from Bleak Home. Pri­or to this discover, the title of the previous­est recognized Dick­ens movie belonged to Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost, which pre­miered in Novem­ber 1901.

Professional­vid­ing extra con­textual content for the movie, the BFI writes:

This trag­ic brief movie is predicated on the stage professional­duc­tion of Poor Jo the Cross­ing Sweep­er, which itself adapt­ed one of the have an effect on­ing sto­ries in Dick­ens’ epic nov­el Bleak Home. This brief movie may be very a lot an adap­ta­tion of the stage ver­sion, wherein a fol­low-spot recre­at­ed the evening watch­man’s lamp. As Joe dies, nev­er hav­ing been taught to wish, the sunshine additionally rep­re­sents the redemp­tive mild of heav­en.

The char­ac­ter of Joe was pop­u­larised within the nineteenth cen­tu­ry by actress Jen­nie Lee, who toured her per­for­mance round Europe and the USA. Right here Joe is performed by Lau­ra Bay­ley and the Evening-watch­man by Tom Inexperienced. Each actors had been reg­u­lar col­lab­o­ra­tors with the Brighton-based movie­mak­er GA Smith (Bay­ley was his spouse).

You’ll be able to watch the movie, cour­tesy of BFI, above.

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