User Reviews

Another of the Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew movies, in which they take a small situational comedy and play it with great charm. In this, Mr. Drew is tired of having to give up his seat on the trolley to women with squalling brats, and so he buys a doll and passes it off as his own baby. This sequence is a lot of fun as Mr. Drew alternates between acting as if the doll is a real baby, and treating it as a mere inert prop -- and bystanders react to his cavalier behavior.

Even the plot, which involves him trying to court Mrs. Drew -- they aren't married in the movie, you see -- when she believes him to be a married man with a baby -- is done in a realistic, convincing and funny way. It is a pity that a two-minute chunk of the film is bubbled out of existence -- but so many of the many fine comedies they did no longer exist. If this one is available to you, don't miss the opportunity to see it.

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew were a celebrated comedic team of the 1910's, he being of the famous theatrical Drew family (and uncle to the legendary Barrymore siblings). Sidney Drew is a fine comedian, perhaps the first of the type of middle-aged man confronted with the perils of daily life. Mrs. Drew (quite a bit younger than him) is a pleasant personality but decidedly a distant second in their team work.

Sidney is tired of never getting a seat on the streetcar while anyone accompanying a child is always guaranteed a seat. He decides to buy a life-sized baby doll and take it with him two and from work. Trouble is the new employee (Mrs. Drew) he has his eye on sees him with his "baby" and is outraged that a married father wants to pursue her. Upset that his scheme has cost him the girl he wants, Drew smacks the doll and takes it to throw in the river - unaware the girl is watching and totally horrified!

The black comedy bits are hilarious and a bit of a surprise for the strait-laced 1910's. A copy of this movie exists at the Library of Congress and another copy (reportedly a better one) was recently discovered in the United Kingdom and is available for purchase on ebay with the proceeds going to charity donation for film preservation for Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

Paul West has hit upon an original farce motive, and a rattling good one, in this one-reel of diverting nonsense, Sidney Drew is Boobley, and his wife plays opposite to him, a combination that is guaranteed to extract the last drop of mirth from any ripe and racy comic film. - The Moving Picture World, May 15, 1915