Tilly's Party

1911
Silent
7m

Irrepressible sister act Tilly and Sally throw a party - of sorts - in this chaotic comedy caper.

Tilly and Sally are forbidden to attend a party and reluctantly sent off to do their piano practice. Deciding instead to entertain two midshipmen to their own party, the girls wreak their unique brand of ebullient chaos. Locking up the housekeeper, they career out of control on roller skates, knocking over the guests and causing mayhem in the kitchen before making their escape in a health-and-safety-defying bicycle chase. By the time the pursuing adults catch them up, they're practising the piano and looking like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

There were about 20 Tilly comedies made in 1911 and 1912, all with the same irresistible high energy, undermining the expected conduct of young ladies with Tilly and Sally's wild antics. The film demonstrates that such unconstrained behaviour by females could at least be imagined if not necessarily realised.

Make More Noise: Suffragettes on Film

"You have to make more noise than anybody else!," cried Suffragette pioneer Emmeline Pankhurst. But how to make more noise in silent film?

Pankhurst's strategy was simple but clever: at every public meeting or gathering, Suffragettes should stand up and shout "votes for women!". But how to make more noise in silent film? With moving images becoming increasingly important, the suffragettes needed to be not just heard, but seen. Newsreels were noticeably more neutral in their reporting than newspapers, so their cameramen were invited to big demonstrations, where banners and placards were carefully placed for the cameras.

Suffragettes (often played by men in drag) were common objects of ridicule in film comedies. But some characterisations were more ambiguous, and comedy could even - sometimes - give its female protagonists the freedom to make one hell of a noise.