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

A lit­tle over a decade in the past, a cura­tor on the British Movie Insti­tute (BFI) dis­cov­ered the outdated­est sur­viv­ing movie fea­tur­ing a Charles Dick­ens char­ac­ter, “The Dying of Poor Joe.”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 Pri­or to this discover, the title of the outdated­est identified Dick­ens movie belonged to Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost, which pre­miered in Novem­ber 1901.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 some 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, through which a fol­low-spot recre­at­ed the night time watch­man’s lamp. As Joe dies, nev­er hav­ing been taught to wish, the sunshine additionally rep­re­sents the redemp­tive gentle 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.

If you want to enroll in Open Tradition’s free e mail newslet­ter, please discover it right here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­ebook, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you want to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our website. It’s onerous to rely 100% on advertisements, and your con­tri­bu­tions will assist us con­tin­ue professional­vid­ing the perfect free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to be taught­ers each­the place. You’ll be able to con­tribute via Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent 

An Oscar-Win­ning Ani­ma­tion of Charles Dick­ens’ Clas­sic Story, A Christ­mas Automobile­ol (1971)

Watch L’Inferno (1911), Italy’s First Fea­ture Movie and Per­haps the Most interesting Adap­ta­tion of Dante’s Clas­sic

Watch Very First Movie Adap­ta­tions of Shakespeare’s Performs: King John, The Tem­pest, Richard III & Extra (1899–1936)

Franken­stein Hits the Sil­ver Display (1910)