Comic strip characters found their place in the cinema just as the industry of filmmaking was starting to take shape. In September 1897, pioneering British filmmaker George Albert Smith, who would later develop an early process for color motion picture film known as Kinecolor, directed Weary Willie. Based on Tom Browne’s comedic tramps Weary Willie & Tired Tim (originally known as Willie Waddles and Tired Timmy) that began appearing on the cover of the weekly magazine Illustrated Chips a year earlier, the film’s slapstick plot involved Willie inadvertently whacking a woman who hires him to beat a rug.
Though short and simplistic in its approach, the movie remains significant not only as the first live-action adaptation of a comic strip character but also as a forerunner to the films of Charlie Chapin, who claimed to have drawn inspiration for his iconic Tramp figure from Browne’s work. Despite its historic relevance, no copies of the film are known to remain in existence. Weary Willie & Tired Tim would be featured in several more silent shorts and remain on the cover of Illustrated Chips until its final issue in 1953. Browne, who remained extremely popular throughout much of his career and became an influence on British cartoonists who followed him, died of cancer in 1910 at the age of 39.
(Image: “Innocents on the River” by Tom Browne, Illustrated Chips #298, May 16, 1896)
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