Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 2233 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
JESSIE | 1914 | 1914-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 20 mins Subject: EARLY CINEMA ENTERTAINMENT / LEISURE |
Summary A film dramatisation of two sisters split up after the death of their mother and their eventual reunion. The film was made by Bamforth and Company, Holmfirth. |
Description
A film dramatisation of two sisters split up after the death of their mother and their eventual reunion. The film was made by Bamforth and Company, Holmfirth.
The film begins with a finger moving across the page of a book (the Bible), 'consider the lilies ..' (Matthew Ch. 7, verses 28-29). The woman with the Bible is lying in bed with her two daughters on either side.
Intertitle: 'The widow commits her children to God's keeping' The woman passes away, and each...
A film dramatisation of two sisters split up after the death of their mother and their eventual reunion. The film was made by Bamforth and Company, Holmfirth.
The film begins with a finger moving across the page of a book (the Bible), 'consider the lilies ..' (Matthew Ch. 7, verses 28-29). The woman with the Bible is lying in bed with her two daughters on either side.
Intertitle: 'The widow commits her children to God's keeping' The woman passes away, and each daughter slumps onto the bed in grief.
Intertitle: 'Orphaned' The two daughters are sat at home drinking tea. Jessie, the eldest, puts on a hat, hugs her little sister and departs, leaving her sister to cry on her own.
Intertitle: 'Mrs Cleeve takes pity on the orphans and offers to adopt Winnie' As the younger sister, Winnie, is outside her house with two other young children, Mrs Cleeve arrives and takes Winnie inside. Jessie arrives and greets Mrs Cleeve, who then makes her proposal to adopt Winnie.
Intertitle: 'Jessie's unwilling sacrifice' Jessie asks Winnie if she is willing to be adopted, and Winnie assents. Appearing upset Jessie agrees, and Mrs Cleeve leaves. Jessie hugs Winnie. At the adoption agency Mrs Cleeve is talking with the clerk when Jessie and Winnie arrive. The adoption papers are brought out and Mrs Cleeve and Jessie sign. The adoption agreement is shown. Jessie gives Minnie one last hug before Winnie leaves with Mrs Cleeve. The clerk stops Jessie from running out after them, and she falls back into her chair crying. Mrs Cleeve and Winnie arrive by horse and cart at her grand house. In the drawing room Winnie finds a teddy bear and a doll. Back home Jessie picks up a picture of her sister and cries again.
Intertitle: 'Jessie tries to find employment' Jessie enters a bank to ask for a job, and one of the clerks offers her a chair. But the manager says that there is no work there. The bank clerk watches Jessie go out and he follows her. She stops to briefly look at the book she is carrying, and walks on with the clerk following behind.
Intertitle: 'Her last shilling' Jessie enters a shop and selects various small items to go onto a tray that is suspended around her neck with string. Jessie goes out and joins others wearing similar trays selling in the street. A man stops and buys something off her, but the other sellers try to prevent her from standing with them. So Jessie goes off to another street still followed by the bank clerk.
Intertitle: 'Jessie tries to sell her wares in another street' Jessie tries to sell to passes by but without success.
Intertitle: 'Twixt sympathy and love' The bank clerk, Robert, goes over to Jessie, and as he does so, she drops her tray and begins to go feint. Robert holds her up before a cab arrives and he takes Jessie to her home. He lays her down on her chaise longue and props her head under a pillow.
Intertitle: 'Robert places Jessie in the care of doctor and nurse' The doctor arrives and begins examining Jessie, followed by a nurse who gives Jessie some water to drink. Jessie begins to revive the doctor departs.
Intertitle: 'Jessie's turning point in life' Jessie is sat up on her chaise longue, looking much better and holding a bunch of flowers, with Robert sat beside her. Jessie puts the flowers down, shows Robert a picture of her little sister and breaks down crying. Robert comforts her and produces a ring. Robert leaves and Jessie writes a letter to Mrs Cleeve asking her to break the adoption agreement and allow Jessie to have her sister back now that she is going to get married. The nurse returns and Jessie gives her the letter to deliver. Robert is seen returning to work at the bank. In the drawing room of Mrs Cleeve the nurse arrives and passes on the letter. Mrs Cleeve immediately writes a reply and gives it to the nurse to take back. Robert is seen leaving the bank after work. The nurse returns to Jessie with the letter which has turned down the request, stating that she, Mrs Cleeve, loves Jessie's sister too dearly to part with her.
Jessie is clearly upset by this response when Robert arrives. They go for a walk through a garden before arriving at the house of Mrs Cleeve. When they go into the drawing room Robert makes, through an intertitle, an introduction, 'My stepmother, with whom we are to live and her recently adopted child.' Mrs Cleeve comes into the room and she embraces with Jessie, followed by Winnie who is hugged and kissed by Jessie. The film ends with Winnie sat between Robert and Jessie, kissing them both, and putting an arm around each of them.
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