BFI

Catching the Milk Thief (1899) is a one-shot piece of knockabout very typical of the Bamforth Company's output at this time.

The title hints at some kind of investigation taking place, though in fact the criminal is almost immediately caught red-handed (or rather white-handed, since he is quickly covered with the contents of the milk churn) and punished by the farmer and two passers-by.

In this, they display a level of violence (even using farming implements and a wheelbarrow) that seems out of all proportion to the crime - especially as the presumed source of the milk, a goat seen wandering in the background, seems blithely unconcerned by the whole affair.

Michael Brooke

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