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The mid-Edwardian era saw a great many comedies about the exploits of mischievous children, such as James Williamson's The Dear Boys Home for the Holidays (1904) and Our New Errand Boy (1905). These films cast his own sons as the juvenile hellraisers, and they invariably ended with the humiliation of assorted adults and the children firmly on top. R.W. Paul's is in a very similar vein, although lacking the elaborate location work of Williamson's work. At first sight, it seems to be returning to the territory of His Only Pair (1902), in that it's about the relationship between a boy and an elderly woman, presumably his grandmother. However, this time it's altogether more fractious: the boy is bored, the grandmother uninterested, and only a sooty stovepipe offers any obvious distraction. As film historian Ian Christie points out, this is essentially a variation on the theme of the very first cinema comedy, the Lumière Brothers' L'Arroseur arrosé (France, 1895), which involved a gardener, a boy and a hose. This had already seen plenty of British adaptations, including Bamforth's more elaborate The Biter Bit (1900), though the twist in Paul's film is that thanks to the intervention of a well-placed washtub, it's the boy who has the last laugh. Michael Brooke *This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908', with music by Stephen Horne and optional commentary by Ian Christie.
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Complete film (1:33)
