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 Cry of the Children | |
|---|---|
 Alice (Marie Eline, center) with other child laborers and her father (James Cruze, left) | |
| Directed by | George Nichols |
| Based on | "The Cry of the Children" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
| Cinematography | Carl Louis Gregory |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 2 reels (2000 feet, original print 29 minutes) |
| Country | United States |
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
edit- Marie Eline as Alice, the little girl
- Ethel Wright as The working mother
- James Cruze as The working father
- Lila Chester as The factory owner's wife
- William Russell as The factory owner
References
edit- ^ Wojik-Andrews, Ian (9 September 2002). Childrens Films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory. Routledge. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-135-57661-5.
- ^ Finamore, Michelle Tolini (28 January 2013). Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-230-38949-6.
- ^ "2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- ^ 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.
External links
edit- The Cry of the Children essay by Ned Thanhouser at National Film Registry [1]
- The Cry of the Children at thanhuser.org [2]
- The Cry of the Children at IMDb
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