The Sick Kitten
About The Sick Kitten
Two children in dressy Edwardian clothes try to get a spoon of medicine into a sick kitten. George Albert Smith cuts from the medium view to a close-up of the spoon and the kitten’s face, then back to the same medium shot. There is no circular mask around the close-up.
Cast & crew
More about The Sick Kitten
Smith directed and photographed it in 1903. Warwick Trading Company distributed it. It runs 34 seconds. It is a remake of his lost 1901 film The Little Doctor. The close-up continues the cut he had used in Grandma’s Reading Glass and As Seen Through a Telescope, both 1900, which hid the insert inside a black circle.
Themes
Making
Smith’s point is the cut. The medicine spoon is the excuse for leaving the room and returning to it.
Look
Smith photographs the children at medium distance, cuts to the kitten’s face and the spoon, and matches back to the same setup.
Technique
An early return from a close-up to the shot that preceded it, without the circular mask Smith had used in 1900.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A 34-second print survives.
Notes
- The children are not named on the credits.
- The Little Doctor, the 1901 version, is lost.
- The close-up is a full-frame cut, not a masked insert.
- A Commons copy runs under the 1903 title.
Scenes
- The spoon and the kitten’s face fill the frame, then the children are back in the medium shot.
Influenced by
- Grandma's Reading Glass (1900)
- As Seen Through a Telescope (1900)
- The Little Doctor (1901)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Sick Kitten (1903).webm)
