Stop Thief!
About Stop Thief!
A tramp snatches a joint of meat from a butcher’s boy. The boy, the dogs, and people along the street chase him through the village in three shots that keep the run going. He jumps into a large rain barrel. The dogs follow. They eat the joint down to the bone. The butcher uses that bone as a club on him. Sam Dalton plays the tramp.
Cast & crew
More about Stop Thief!
James Williamson wrote and directed it. Released October 1901, with his Fire! of the same year. It runs 2 minutes 8 seconds. Williamson Kinematograph Company is the firm.
Themes
Making
Williamson’s grammar here is the cut that continues a run. Fire!, released with it, is the other 1901 film in which he builds a story out of that kind of join.
Reviews
Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline calls Stop Thief! one of the first true chase films made in Britain or elsewhere.
Look
Three shots carry one chase: the theft, the village run, and the barrel.
Technique
The chase continues across cuts instead of resetting in a single tableau.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print of a little over two minutes survives.
Notes
- Michael Brooke, for BFI Screenonline, calls it one of the first true chase films in Britain or anywhere.
- The chase is three shots joined so the run does not stop at a cut.
- The bone that is left of the joint is the weapon.
- A Commons copy carries the 1901 title.
Scenes
- The tramp grabs the meat and the street joins the chase.
- He dives into the rain barrel. The dogs go in after him.
- The butcher beats him with the bare bone.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Stop Thief (1901).webm)
