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Rethinking Early Cinematic Adaptations: Death of Poor Joe (1901)

The Death of Poor Joe (1901), rediscovered in 2012 at the BFI, is the earliest known cinematic adaptation of a Dickens novel, focusing on a pivotal scene from Bleak House–the death of Jo the crossing guard. However, it is easy to see how this short film could have gone misidentified for so long, since G. A. Smith’s film radically rewrites Jo’s death scene as it appears in the novel, changing some of the key players and the setting. This article argues that G. A. Smith and Laura Bayley Smith, who plays Joe, were greatly influenced by prior theatrical adaptations of Bleak House, particularly Jo, a vehicle for the actress Jennie Lee, and that an understanding of the earliest literary adaptations on film must rest on a broad familiarity with nineteenth-century theatrical practice. Early film adaptations show next to no concern for fidelity to their literary sources but instead turn to theatrical and visual culture for inspiration.