My Old Dutch (1915 film)

Described as "an unashamed tear-jerker" by film writer Clive Hirschhorn, My Old Dutch is the story of a devoted marriage over 40 years—from the couple's meeting until their rescue from a gender-segregated workhouse in their old age. The screenplay was inspired by Albert Chevalier's celebrated song, "My Old Dutch" (1892). The title is a Cockney colloquialism for a female partner or, especially, wife. ==Cast==

• Albert Chevalier as Joe Brown • Florence Turner as Sal Gray • Henry Edwards as Herbert Brown • Harry Brett as 'Erb 'Uggins • Arthur Shirley as Doctor • Richard Cotter as Nipper • Amy Lorraine • Minnie Rayner ==Production==

My Old Dutch is considered the most important film in which American film star Florence Turner worked while heading her own independent film company in England. Director Laurence Trimble said that the film had "a universal appeal, something striking deep in human nature, not dependent upon race or prejudice and comprehensible to both old and young. The theme in this instance is idyllic love." File:My-Old-Dutch-1915-Turner.jpg|Florence Turner as Sal File:My-Old-Dutch-1915-Chevalier.jpg|Albert Chevalier as Joe File:My-Old-Dutch-Ad-1915.jpg|Advertisement (12 June 1915) File:My-Old-Dutch-1915-Cotter.jpg|Richard Cotter as Nipper File:My-Old-Dutch-1915-1.jpg|Henry Edwards, Florence Turner and Albert Chevalier ==Reception==

'' magazine (28 August 1915) My Old Dutch was a great success in Britain. Booked into 1,600 theatres by 1918, the film was seen by an estimated five million people over the course of the First World War. ==Survival status==

The survival status of My Old Dutch is unknown. ==Remake==

Director Laurence Trimble initiated a 1926 Hollywood remake of his own 1915 British version of My Old Dutch to feature its star, Florence Turner. Actor James Morrison recalled Trimble telling him that Turner hoped to get back into films, and he asked him to help in a screen test that could be shown to Universal Pictures. "He got a little company together—the people who were in it worked for nothing, because we loved Flotie—and we did scenes from My Old Dutch," Morrison said. Universal approved the project but cast May McAvoy, not Turner, in the starring role. ==References==