Dick Whittington and his Cat

I've been watching a bunch of Alice Guy's Solax one-reelers--every one I could find--and having already seen many of her Gaumont shorts--again, every one I could find, "Dick Whittington and His Cat" is an interesting change in that it's three-reels long, or slightly over 40 minutes--even longer than her 1906 passion play. That novelty wears thin pretty quick, though, especially given that the film is a tiresome piece of rags-to-riches folklore, or fairy tale, with white actors in offensive dark makeup for some Orientalism mixed in.

So, there was a real Richard Whittington, but the whole cat and prophecy business are the stuff of legend. The point of the myth, now, I have little clue. Dick becomes rich by dumb luck, the bells turning him back to a life he tries to escape--so maybe the moral is, stay in your place, poors, and wait for fortune.... I don't know--I even tried and gave up on trying to make the cat and rats into a clunky allegory for the colonialist sea trading and Orientalism depicted. Mostly, I suppose, it's merely a nationalist fantasy (oddly enough for an American film made by a French immigrant), as the London that Dick dreams have streets paved of gold, indeed, turns out to be true for him in a sense. Otherwise, as depicted by Guy and Solax, at least, it's no more than a shaggy dog.

The fantasy-and-reality aspect is the most interesting methinks. There are two dream sequences envisioned by multiple-exposure photography--a common technique going back to early cinema. Both take place outside the "real" London: one a dream of paintings giving Dick (as common of Guy's oeuvre, played straight by a woman--men in drag, on the other hand, being depicted as comedic in her other films) an art-inspired misrepresentation of the city's actual impoverished state, and the other as he tries to flee the area interpreted as a prophecy, as told by the ringing bells, of all things, of the St Mary-le-Bow church that Dick will one day become Lord Mayor of London. (Along with a door bell, another instance of sound in the silent films of Guy, who also made early-sound pictures in her days with Gaumont.) The resolution to this dichotomy is when the fantasy and reality become one in the same with Dick's, now Mr. Whittington, newfound fortune. It's also neat that the real London is also largely depicted with obvious sets and backdrops, including one where there's at least one figure moving back and forth in a window and where all the lights in the windows of the cityscape are turned off.

The rest is some rather dated and poor filmmaking even for 1913. While there is some better crosscutting and near-use of intertitles compared to her prior films, there's still the tableau style of title cards describing proceeding actions. Moreover, the plotting seems especially strained compared to Guy's one-reelers in her extending these usual practices to three reels. To represent Dick's initial hunger upon entering London, we get three scenes almost in a row of him struggling to secure food--the contradictory effect being to make it appear as though he's a glutton. The same repetitive pacing occurs for his conflict with the cook and, later, Dick disappears from the picture as the plot focuses on the trading expedition and their exchanging Dick's cat (to solve the Sultan's palace's rat problem) to over-paying foreigners who've supposedly never seen a feline in return for treasure-chest loads of gold and a new ship (theirs burned in a fire). Oh, and Dick also has a friend Alice, who I think is based on the real Whittington's future wife, but adds nothing to this story. Based on this three-reel feature, I'd recommend sticking to the shorter films, or skipping ahead to her later, five-reels (and accessible but now incomplete) "The Ocean Waif" (1916), of the world's first female filmmaker.

Vinnie Burns is Dick Whittington, who comes to London, where he imagines the streets are paved with gold. They aren't. He -- even though Miss Burns isn't a boy, the character is -- gets a job sculling the kitchen of a wealthy merchant. His garret is overrun with rats, so he gets a cat. When the merchant sets sail, he offers his employees the chance to proffer their possession for trade. Dick only owns his cat. He offers it.

I'm sure you know the popular English fairy tale. Alice Guy directs this early feature (more than 40 minutes long!) in a style suggestive of a Christmas pantomime. That's almost certainly why it's a lady who plays the title role. Other than that, it's performed in a fairly naturalistic style, even though it's almost entirely stage-bound (Dick is by some rocks doors when he hears the Bow Bell), and the costumes are the sort of high medieval clothing you'll see in book engravings. It's a very engaging movie for the year it was made. With a good organ accompaniment, it would still go over very well.