Free
Fiction
Historical re-enactions, comic sketches and a groundbreaking 'true crime' film...
Before the great 1990s Mitchell and Kenyon rediscovery, we thought we knew all we ever would about what historian Rachael Low described as a "small but hardy" company producing "all the types of film usual at the time", plus some "faked topicals of the South African War filmed on the outskirts of Blackburn". The company, said Low, made a "solid contribution", but had no influence on cinematic technique. Today, we know more, thanks to the few fiction productions in this collection, and another 80 or so titles held at the Cinema Museum and elsewhere. Many of these films recreate events during the 1900 Boxer rebellion and the Boer War, and sit somewhere between fiction and dramatised actuality. Other productions are more clearly fiction - mostly short comedies and dramatic sketches. The earliest are relatively basic, with minimal sets and costumes, and often amateur actors. Later films are more sophisticated, with a robust disrespect for authority typical of their time. Digitisation of this collection was funded by The National Lottery.
Arrest of Goudie (1901)Arrest of Goudie (1901)
Crime 1901 6 minsSilent Location: Berry St, Liverpool
Crimewatch Mitchell and Kenyon style, in the first ever film to recreate a true crime.
Black Diamonds - the Collier's Daily Life (1904)Black Diamonds - the Collier's Daily Life (1904)
Non-Fiction 1904 3 minsSilent
The only two surviving scenes from an amazing Edwardian film about the work of Britain's coalminers.
Snowballs (1901)Snowballs (1901)
Comedy 1901 2 minsSilent Location: Glasgow
Young scamps launch a snowball attack on a hapless bobby.
Lizars, EdinburghLizars, Edinburgh
Comedy 1904 2 minsSilent Location: Edinburgh
Mitchell and Kenyon capture comedian Tom E. Murray at Lizars Theatre in Edinburgh on 12 December 1904.
Mr Moon (1901)Mr Moon (1901)
Advert 1901 3 minsSilent
Rare production footage of an early 'trick' film with a famous music hall performer.
Sporting Colliers and the Bobby (c.1901)Sporting Colliers and the Bobby (c.1901)
Comedy 1901 2 minsSilent
A policeman breaks up a gambling den, but is caught pocketing the proceeds.
Mitchell and Kenyon Fiction OffcutsMitchell and Kenyon Fiction Offcuts
Drama 1902 0 minsSilent
Two tantalising fragments of Mitchell and Kenyon's fiction films - but what do they tell us?
Unfaithful Wife (c.1900)Unfaithful Wife (c.1900)
Drama 1900 1 minsSilent
A faithless wife, with a penchant for men in uniform, entertains a sailor before her policeman husband comes home.
Beheading a Chinese BoxerBeheading a Chinese Boxer
War 1900 1 minsSilent
A grisly early fictional reconstruction inspired by atrocity stories from China's Boxer Rebellion.