A family has a sick woman at home. Her girl goes out in the snow to beg.A family has a sick woman at home. Her girl goes out in the snow to beg.A family has a sick woman at home. Her girl goes out in the snow to beg.
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Did you know
- TriviaGeorges Méliès (the film's director) reportedly filmed two different endings for this film. The first ending depicts the beggar girl freezing to death on the street, and then her soul entering heaven. And a second (and more famous) ending where the beggar is rescued by a wealthy couple, who then resolve her family's financial problems. The first ending was reserved for French audiences, and the second version for American audiences. Film historians consider this as evidence that American film audiences in the 1900s already had a reputation for preferring happy endings over tragic endings.
Featured review
The Christmas Angel
Détresse et charité (1905)
*** (out of 4)
aka The Christmas Angel
This isn't a completely successful film but you can't help but see the influence it had on future Christmas tales. The story is pretty simple as a mother lays dying and things get even worse for her when the family can't afford coal to keep the house warm. The husband sends their daughter out to beg for change but she ends up falling into the snow from weakness and dying but then an angel appears. While watching this thing I couldn't help but notice countless things that would appear in future Christmas movies and this includes the ending, which reminded me of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Who knows if Capra or anyone else associated with the story or film had seen this but it's an interesting thing to compare. Another thing that caught my attention was the actual way the story was told because it's over-dramatic moments and the demand that the story prove the greatness of Christ and the way the ending comes reminded me of the type of film that D.W. Griffith would start making a couple years later. If you showed someone this film who was familiar with early cinema and then asked them to guess who made it I'd say the majority would name Griffith. At just around eight-minutes, the film does a nice job getting its message across and what really impressed me were the terrific sets. This is also another example of the director using narration to the explain what was going on in the film.
*** (out of 4)
aka The Christmas Angel
This isn't a completely successful film but you can't help but see the influence it had on future Christmas tales. The story is pretty simple as a mother lays dying and things get even worse for her when the family can't afford coal to keep the house warm. The husband sends their daughter out to beg for change but she ends up falling into the snow from weakness and dying but then an angel appears. While watching this thing I couldn't help but notice countless things that would appear in future Christmas movies and this includes the ending, which reminded me of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Who knows if Capra or anyone else associated with the story or film had seen this but it's an interesting thing to compare. Another thing that caught my attention was the actual way the story was told because it's over-dramatic moments and the demand that the story prove the greatness of Christ and the way the ending comes reminded me of the type of film that D.W. Griffith would start making a couple years later. If you showed someone this film who was familiar with early cinema and then asked them to guess who made it I'd say the majority would name Griffith. At just around eight-minutes, the film does a nice job getting its message across and what really impressed me were the terrific sets. This is also another example of the director using narration to the explain what was going on in the film.
helpful•52
- Michael_Elliott
- Aug 25, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- El ángel de Navidad
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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