A Christmas Accident

1912 Drama 15 minutes Directed by Harold M. Shaw

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About A Christmas Accident

The Giltons, who have money, share a house with the Biltons, who have several children and very little. Mr. Gilton orders the children out of his yard and blames them when his dog is poisoned. A grocery order goes to the wrong door, and on Christmas Eve the Biltons hang five stockings with no turkey. Mrs. Gilton wants to help. Lost in a storm, Mr. Gilton stumbles into the Bilton rooms. The child Cora Cordelia gives him the present she had meant for someone else: it is marked for Mr. Gilton, because his dog died.

Cast & crew

More about A Christmas Accident

Harold M. Shaw directed. The story is Annie Eliot Trumbull's, copyrighted in 1897 by A. S. Barnes and Company. Bannister Merwin wrote the scenario. Edison Kinetogram of 1 December 1912 carried a synopsis. General Film Company distributed it. Release date 14 December 1912. William Wadsworth plays Mr. Gilton. Mrs. William Bechtel plays his wife. Augustus Phillips and Ida Williams play the Biltons. Edna Hammel plays Cora Cordelia Bilton.

Themes

  • Two families, one wall
  • A poisoned dog and a wrong grocery order
  • A child's Christmas gift that changes the neighbor
  • Gilton
  • Bilton
  • Cora Cordelia
  • Christmas Eve
  • storm
  • Edison
  • dog

Making

Edison staged the two households as opposite doors in one building. The accident is the storm that walks Gilton into the poorer kitchen.

Music

Silent.

Preservation

Prints and fragments were recovered in the Dawson Film Find of 1978. A full circulating copy runs just under 15 minutes.

Notes

  • An intertitle calls one side "the home of means and selfishness" and the other "the home of little means but contentment.
  • Another card reads "Santa Claus is poor this year.
  • The Biltons' line is "Santa Claus forgot to bring us a turkey.
  • Prints turned up in the Dawson Film Find in 1978.
  • Kino Video included it in a 2001 edition.
  • A Wikimedia copy runs 14 minutes 48 seconds.

Scenes

  • Gilton's grocery order is delivered next door, and he demands to know where the roast beef went.
  • Five small stockings hang in the Bilton room.
  • Blinded by the storm, he walks into their Christmas and receives the gift about the dead dog.

Influenced by

  • Annie Eliot Trumbull's 1897 story

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (A Christmas Accident.webm)
  • Kino Video (2001)

Quotes

To Mr. Gilton, because his doggie died.

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