User Reviews

Augustus Phillips and William Wadsworth want to change Edna Flugrath's name and arrive at her house bearing proposals. However, when downstairs maid Alice Washburn hears Mr. Phillips practicing his proposal, she thinks he is asking for her hand and accepts in this amusing Edison comedy.

There's a very nice assortment of stage business between the actors, but it's Miss Washburn -- who played comic spinsters for Edison in this period -- who steals the show with her man-hungry act. Everyone falls into a clear type and plays it nicely; Mr. Wadsworth's sneering dislike when only the audience is looking is funny, as is Richard Ridgely as the Latin chef, Miss Washburn's jilted lover.

Edison was still using its style of pantomime and editing that allowed its movies to get along with very few titles. Here's a fine example of it in a lighter mode.

The author of "The House Boat on the Styx," John Kendrick Bangs, gives us this original farce in which Alice Washburn, as a sentimental housemaid, carries well the most important role. Richard Ridgeley, as chef in the kitchen wants to be hers, but he hasn't yet "popped" when Augustus Phillips, a bashful suitor for the hand of the daughter of the house, Edna Flugrath, makes his call. In the library, by way of a dress rehearsal, he puts tender emotion into his plea to a sofa cushion to be his wife. Alice overhears this and accepts. She is driven back to the kitchen by the coming of another of Edna's admirers, William Wadsworth, and tells the chef that he's too late. The farcical despair of this ardent cookie-maker which runs through the rest of the picture, has a pleasing foil in the comedy, being played in the parlor where the two lovers fence for the girl's attention. The knot is finally cut by the chef's butcher knife flashed at Augustus' throat, for this, when it is finally explained, shows Edna a picture of love in distress and she flies to his arms. It makes a delightful, light-hearted offering, just the thing for the holiday season. - The Moving Picture World, January 4, 1913