BFI

Almost certainly adapted from a stage sketch (Roma T. Roma, the actress on screen, is believed to be the author), this film languished in the BFI National Archive under the temporary title Man and Woman in Dramatic Scene until it was plausibly identified as being He and She, an 1898 production by the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company that co-starred Frank Wood.

In the absence of sound, intertitles or even a particularly helpful title, it is hard to tell exactly what's going on, though a plausible guess is that the onscreen couple are a father and daughter, and it is some important date (at the start of the film, both point at the clock), possibly her birthday. She is clearly expecting something from him and he refuses to oblige. This leads to a full-scale tantrum on her part, which he joins in, jumping up and down on top of the cushion he has wrested from her hands. But when she breaks into floods of tears, he takes pity on her and gives her something unidentifiable in a box - possibly an item of jewellery. Her demeanour instantly changes, and the two are reconciled.

Michael Brooke

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