British Film Institute

Like G.A. Smith's Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer (1898) and Grandma Threading Her Needle (1900), The Old Maid's Valentine is essentially a 'facial' - a medium close-up shot of a single performer whose changing expression constitutes virtually all the film's dramatic action.

Here, the focus is on elderly spinster Miss Pimple (played by the director's wife Laura Bayley), whose mood changes from forlorn to expectant to bitter disappointment once she realises that the envelope she's been handed on February 14th doesn't contain a longed-for Valentine's card after all.

Michael Brooke

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