The light side of the moon… Six Stories About London in Victorian Film, Bryony Dixon and Stephen Horne, BFI

It was my first week at university when my tutor, Roger Highfield, discussed the concept of the Golden Age... that time when we never, actually, had it so good. This weekend the BFI screens Victorian films from 1896-1901 that show us our world when we ruled a third of the globe: but was it at the peak of our powers? From an historian’s perspective it’s fascinating to view this age in black and white clarity, when the pomp was sometimes undermined by circumstance: the launch of a warship ends up with dozens drowned whilst they/we almost dropped Queen Victoria’s coffin before the Army and Navy then quarrelled about whose fault it was. Cinematic time-travel is exciting but it is also sobering. Tonight, we had both and, in the end one truly transcendent moment.

The BFI have been busily digitising their archive of early British film and restoring a few on the way. This includes the magnificent compilation shown at last year’s London Film Festival, The Great Victorian Picture Show which screens again on Saturday 11^th in a weekend celebrating the inventiveness and energy of the Victorians who were at the forefront of the new medium as almost everything else.

All of this presages the availability of some 500 of these films on the BFI Player from Monday 13^th. The Victorian Age is about to download and it will be overwhelming…

The end of an era

At the heart of  this is Bryony Dixon, the BFI’s head curator for silent film who not only clearly gives these films their due she presents them with such passion and insight. I remember an evening when she talked through some of her favourite British silent documentaries with Neil Brand on accompanying – a packed NFT1 was thoroughly entertained and we hoped for more and, thrillingly, that’s what we’re getting.

As with the IMAX Gala she hosted last year, tonight’s Victorian tour was sold out and with Stephen Horne’s sympathetic accompaniment, Bryony drew us into these fascinating visual gobbets with her usual mix of insight and wit: by day, dedicated archivist and by night, fearless purveyor of historical context and surprise.

First up was a collection of miscellaneous shorts including children dancing to a barrel organ at Kings Cross – Britain’s got talent, as Bryony remarked. Trafalgar Day 1899 saw Queen Victoria being driven under heavy-hat along the procession to mark only the 77^th anniversary. Sir George White is mobbed as he leaves the London Hippodrome, the military man treated as a modern celebrity; only he takes it all with good grace and doesn’t ask to get out of here… In another procession, Life Guards off to the Boer War, we see the Queen again, this time being photographed by your women with early box cameras… plus ca change.

Then some fiction including The Death of Poor Joe (1901) an excerpt from Bleak House with the Watch Man shining his light in pretence of Heavenly Rays. Precious glimpses of the Victorian stage. Then back to Cecil Hepworth’s film of the funeral of Victorian, who’s body travelled from the Isle of Wight to London via Victoria Station; the end of an era.

“If you are researching Victorian film you need to learn to love a parade…”

In another section of Hepworth’s film, as the procession passes into Windsor Park… we learned about that moment of near disaster as horses bolted and Victoria’s coffin almost went flying. The army blamed the navy and they blamed the army back but the Prince Louis of Battenburg – later anglicised to Mountbatten – stepped in to maintain order! The Germanic-Brits were always good in a crisis.

Story Two was about a gruesome murder and multi-medias including a Victorian talkie, Kitty Mahone (1900) as played by American music hall star Lil Hawthorne lip-synching to her own recording. Walter Gibbon, former nail manufacturer from Wolverampton, made the film for Anglo-American Bio-Tableaux as part of his efforts to capture famous stage stars. Seeing and hearing certainly provides the shock of the old and there’s more as Bryony revealed the connections to Dr Crippen and his murders.

Story Three covered the tragic launch of HMS Albion at Bow Creek on the Thames, during which 30 people died. There were two films showing the launch, from EP Prestwich and RW Paul, which sparked off a heated debate about the appropriateness of showing the tragedy as “entertainment”. Both men donated profits from the screenings to help the families of those who died.

Story Four revealed one of the first instances of bootlegging in a story ranging from the Islington Empire to Blackburn. We saw the Walter Gibbons and Jack Smith comedy, A Morning Wash - two men and one bar of soap – and then heard how a copy was found in the Mitchell and Kenyon studios. How this London film found its way to Lancashire was explained by the dodgy dealings of Mr Gibbons and his colleague AD Thomas; Charles Urban stepped in to protect his copyright with physical force and ended up employing Mr Thomas who married well, ran the London Palladium and got knighted. 

Story Five was another glimpse into the researcher’s tireless art as Bryony almost certainly answered the question of where the first film studio was in London.  The answer is not obvious and there are no direct sources for where these films where shot, films couldn’t be made indoors as there was not enough light and so musical hall rooftops were perfect with performers, costumes and scenery available down below.  

We saw Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s extraordinary, Death of King John (1899) directed by WKL Dickson filmmaker working for British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Next time you’re at Cambridge Circus look up to the roof of the Palace Theatre… you’re a wizard Bryony!

Story Six left the best to last with the screening of Nevil Maskelyne’s film of the May 1900 solar eclipse… this was the first time such an event had been captured and to see the light of that flickering penumbra after so long was uncanny. People come and go but solar events remain the same… a reminder of the eternal truths and proof, as with everything else, of the power of the silent archive Bryony looks after so well!

Stephen Horne accompanied in tidy style adding period piano flourish – our emotional connection to these extraordinary tales and fantastical films. Bryony uncovers the historical circumstance and Stephen opens the door to the spirit of the time; not just the musical style but the feelings of the films.

The 1900 Wadesboro eclipse. Image from the North Carolina Collection

This is very much what the BFI is meant for and if you are in any doubt, please step away from the computer and head for the Southbank. Thereare still tickets left for the Victorian shows and I would urge you not to miss out on this rare opportunity to engage with our history almost as every-day. Tuneinto the BFI Player on Monday if not!