Christmas Day in the Workhouse
About Christmas Day in the Workhouse
George Pearson’s one-reeler stages George R. Sims’s 1877 ballad. On Christmas Day the guardians watch the paupers dine. An old man, played by Fred Paul, will not take the feast. He tells them of the previous Christmas, when his wife Nance starved. In the poem he is John, a Devon trader ruined into the workhouse.
Cast & crew
More about Christmas Day in the Workhouse
Harry Engholm wrote the scenario from Sims’s poem, first printed in The Referee at Christmas 1877 under the title “In the Workhouse: Christmas Day.” G. B. Samuelson produced. Imperial Film Company released it in November 1914. It is one reel, about 14 minutes. Wikidata names the company G.B. Samuelson Productions. The British Film Institute holds a 35mm positive.
Themes
Background
The ballad attacks workhouse Christmas charity under the New Poor Law. Pearson’s film, released in the first winter of the 1914 war, keeps that Victorian dinner and that accusation.
Making
Pearson films a monologue: the dinner, the visitors, and the pauper’s refusal. The wife’s death is told, not staged as a second plot.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The British Film Institute National Archive holds a 35mm positive.
Notes
- Sims signed the ballad Dagonet in his Mustard and Cress column. It was collected in The Dagonet Ballads.
- The poem’s opening line is “It is Christmas Day in the Workhouse.”
- Sims aimed it at the 1834 Poor Law. He had reported on the East End poor.
- Fred Paul is the only player named on the surviving credit.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-christmas-day-in-the-workhouse.
Scenes
- Guardians and their ladies watch the paupers sit down to Christmas dinner.
- The old man refuses the meal and tells them how Nance died.
Influenced by
- Christmas Day in the Workhouse (George R. Sims, 1877)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-christmas-day-in-the-workhouse)
- British Film Institute National Archive
Quotes
It is Christmas Day in the Workhouse.