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The Cry of the Children

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The Cry of the Children
Alice (Marie Eline, center) with other child laborers and her father (James Cruze, left)
Directed byGeorge Nichols
Based on"The Cry of the Children" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
CinematographyCarl Louis Gregory
Production
company
Release date
  • April 30, 1912 (1912-04-30)
Running time
2 reels (2000 feet, original print 29 minutes)
CountryUnited States

The Cry of the Children is a 1912 American silent short drama film directed by George Nichols for the Thanhouser Company.[1] The production, based on the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning about child labor, stars Marie Eline, Ethel Wright, and James Cruze. At the time of its release, the film proved to be controversial for its use of real-life footage of children working inside a large textile factory.[2] The film in 2011 was selected into preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3][4]

The film incorporates original lines from the Browning's poem in the film's intertitles, presented within quotation marks without a discernible speaker.[5]

Cast

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PLAY film (26-minute copy)

References

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  1. ^ Wojik-Andrews, Ian (9 September 2002). Childrens Films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory. Routledge. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-135-57661-5.
  2. ^ Finamore, Michelle Tolini (28 January 2013). Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-230-38949-6.
  3. ^ "2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  4. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  5. ^ Berry, Sarah (2014). "Rethinking Intertitles: The Voice and Temporality of Lyric Intertitles in "The Cry of the Children"". Literature/Film Quarterly. 42 (4): 594–608. ISSN 0090-4260. JSTOR 43798998.
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