Santa Claus (1898 film)

Santa Claus
Screencap from the film
Directed by	George Albert Smith
Starring	Laura Bayley Harold Smith Dorothy Smith
Release date	September 1898 (1898-09)
Running time	1 min 16 secs
Country	United Kingdom
Language	Silent

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is an 1898 British silent trick film directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is believed to be the cinema's earliest known example of parallel action and, when coupled with double-exposure techniques that Smith had already demonstrated in the same year's The Mesmerist (1898) and Photographing a Ghost (1898), the result is one of the most visually and conceptually sophisticated British films made up to then."^[1]^[2] It has been described as the very first Christmas movie and a technical marvel of its time.

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Plot

Two children are being put to bed by a maid. She turns off the lights and the children fall asleep. Santa Claus is seen on the roof putting a Christmas tree down the chimney, then following it himself. He enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to fill the stockings hanging from the children's footboard. He then makes an abrupt gesture of farewell in the children's direction and vanishes. The children wake up and joyfully applaud.

Cast

Laura Bayley as nurse/maid
Harold Smith as boy
Dorothy Smith as girl
Unknown as Father Christmas

References

^ Brooke, Michael. "Santa Claus". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
^ Fisher, David. "Santa Claus". Brightonfilm.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.