The Sick Kitten

1903
1m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A girl gives a spoonful of medicine to a kitten.A girl gives a spoonful of medicine to a kitten.A girl gives a spoonful of medicine to a kitten.

Director
- George Albert Smith

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

Director
- George Albert Smith

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

‘Snow White’ Stars Test Their Wits

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and director Marc Webb take our Ultimate Disney Quiz.

Watch now

9:57

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
This early film is mostly known for the fact that within the single scene in which the film takes place, the scene is broken down into 3 shots: a faraway shot, a closeup, and then the faraway shot again. The plot, simple as it is, was a perfect example to demonstrate this idea in order to pave the road for the films of today, and can then be considered an important landmark in film history. It appears to be an exact remake of Smith's earlier 1901 film "The Little Doctors", made because the original negative print was worn out from too many prints being made from it, hence this film was created as a substitute. "The Little Doctors" is now presumably lost.

Goofs
The girl's dress is different during the close-up.

Connections
Featured in Loin de Hollywood - L'art européen du cinéma muet (1995)

User reviews13

Featured review

6/10

Another landmark in the development of cinema.

This isn't the most engaging of films, but it is important in the development of cinema technique because of the way in which pioneering British filmmaker George Albert Smith transforms what would otherwise be a flat and somewhat dull film with the simple insertion of a close-up. The film shows two children and a couple of cats, one of which is supposed to be unwell. The cat sits on the girl's lap as a boy in an over-sized hat fetches a jug. The girl spoon-feeds medicine to the little kitten and it is at this point that Smith switches to a close-up of the kitten so that we can see it happily licking its medicine from the spoon. The film then returns to what was the establishing shot to show the boy removing his hat and bowing. It's no great shakes,and is fairly unremarkable when seen today, but it has a place in cinematic history.