Reviews
Our New Errand Boy (1905)
Funny after all these years
I have just seen this short as it is now freely available for download via the BBC/BFI Creative Content license. Whilst not being of the quality of a Buster Keaton or Charley Chaplin short, (although their movies came some 10-12 years later), and the main character, (a young shop delivery boy), being played clumsily and hamming it up for the camera a bit too much, I did have a couple of genuine laughs, (particularly during the scene with the minister and his hat !!). There is very little information about the actors used but I am assuming that the director/actor James Williamson, who appears in the film, enlisted his son, Tom Williamson, as the errand boy. Seemingly the acting bug didn't 'take', (probably not a great loss), as whilst James went on to direct many more films, James has no other credits listed. All in all not a bad way to spend 5 minutes and a small view of the streets of Hove during 1905.