''Attack on a China Mission'' is a 1900 British

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

, directed by James Williamson, showing some sailors coming to the rescue of the wife of a missionary killed by Boxers. The four-shot film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

, was innovative in content and technique. It incorporated a reverse-angle cut and at least two dozen performers, whereas most dramatic films of the era consisted of single-figure casts and very few shots. Film historian John Barnes claims ''Attack on a China Mission'' had "the most fully developed narrative" of any English film up to that time."

Production

The director, inspired by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

' influential eleven-scene dramatised documentary '' L'Affaire Dreyfus'' (1899), made the film to meet a perceived public demand for footage of the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

, which began in the early months of 1900, at a derelict house called Ivy Lodge in Hove, where, according to Michael Brooke, "he went to considerable lengths to ensure that his film appeared to be authentic, kitting out the house with a bilingual Anglo-Chinese 'Mission Station' sign and drawing on his background as a chemist in order to fake gunshots and explosions."

Premiere

The film was premiered at Hove Town Hall on , where, according to Michael Brooke, it, "was such a success that the audience (fruitlessly) demanded a repeat screening there and then."

Preservation

Just under half of the original 230 feet of footage survives, but, according to Michael Brooke, "it includes material from all four shots, and, despite some obvious trims (the initial forcing of the gate is missing, and the wife's appeal on the balcony to the sailors must surely have lasted more than one second), enough remains to give a good account of what the original audience must have seen."

References

External links

* * {{James Williamson 1900 films British black-and-white films British silent short films Films directed by James Williamson (film pioneer) Films set in China Boxer Rebellion British drama films 1900 drama films Silent drama films