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Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor

Tilly and her sister Sally cause chaos when they visit an elderly, bedridden neighbour

Comedy 1910 6 mins Silent

Overview

Tilly and Sally were the St Trinian's girls of their day. These anarchic anti-heroines lit up a popular series of film comedies in the early 1910s. The girls' wild antics reflect the way women's suffrage activists were overturning conventions of feminine behaviour - they make the schoolboy pranks of the later Just William seem tame! In this early episode, Tilly and Sally upset an elderly neighbour, steal a laundry van and kick off a flour fight in a bakery.

The Hepworth Manufacturing Company released nearly 20 Tilly comedies between 1910 and 1915. Tilly and Sally were usually played by Chrissie White and Alma Taylor, who would become the leading Hepworth stars. Here, however, Chrissie White plays Tilly alongside an unidentified actress. Alas, this print has somehow been edited out of sequence, but it barely spoils the fun.

Director

Lewin Fitzhamon

Genres

Comedy

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Subjects

Poverty

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