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1912Thanhouser CompanyOne reelFantasy

As Others See Us

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Pyxies [sic] are generally better than fairies, for they take a great interest in the doings of their human neighbors, and when they see things going wrong, they are very likely to interfere and set matters straight. Two energetic pyxies lived near a certain village, and were much grieved to find that the majority of the people over-rated themselves. So they decided to straighten things out. Did you ever see a pyxies’ Truth Machine? It is a wonderful invention, and a person who goes in one end of it comes out the other, not as he seems to be, but as he really is. So these pyxies decided to test the contrivance, and place the villagers where they really belonged. A notice posted on the village square caused great curiosity. There was no trouble in securing customers, for the privilege of trying the contrivance was free. And a free show always does a big business. The pyxies put the villagers through the machine, and revealed them in their true colors. Then, being kindhearted pyxies, they restored them to their former station in life, for, of course, it would never do to let others see us as we really are all the time. But these villagers learned their lesson, each one who had been through the mill tried to correct his or her faults.”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 24 August 1912

What the papers said

3 reviews

“European picture makers have succeeded far better than Americans in the production of allegorical themes, and so it is not to be wondered at when an attempt in that direction is made by an American concern it falls short of the ideal. On the other hand, it may be that this is an importation released under Thanhouser’s name. It is …

Read in full · 1 min

“European picture makers have succeeded far better than Americans in the production of allegorical themes, and so it is not to be wondered at when an attempt in that direction is made by an American concern it falls short of the ideal. On the other hand, it may be that this is an importation released under Thanhouser’s name. It is not a poor offering by any means, but its studio sets and contrivances are too artificial in appearance to completely suggest the allegory. The Pixies—‘Tinker’ and ‘Pam,’—hover over the village street where the populace gather to gossip. A warning is posted against the vanities and deceptions of the mortals who are called upon to visit the Pixies and there be shown in their own realities. The mortals are taken into the cavern of the Truth Teller one by one, and there placed in a machine which grinds them forth and makes each one appear as he or she really is. A gossiping, spiteful old woman comes out as a cat, a vain woman is made ugly, an old simpleton becomes an infant, and thus the weaknesses of humankind are pointed out until there is little left to the imagination. The mechanism of the Truth Teller would have been more in harmony with the idea if it were made to appear as a more artistic contrivance, and the cavern itself is rather poorly made. The village street is better, and the appearances and disappearances of the Pixies are well carried out.”

The Morning Telegraph · 25 August 1912

“In the child division; for juveniles it will make fun.”

The Moving Picture World · 24 August 1912

More reviews

21 August 1912The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“The film tells an allegorical story of how the Pixies, Tinker, and Pam, visited the mortals and cured them of many of their foibles. In its own quaint way it is amusing and suggests that much can be done with the theme when this sort of proper care is exercised. The Pixies see in the world below all its vanity, and the call upon the Diviner of Truth to cure these people of their weaknesses. The mortals are invited to see the truth teller, who is a sort of sausage machine where the mortals are put through a stunt that remodels them physically and is supposed to accomplish the same thing mentally. Then the Pixies, depart to the upper regions, and supposedly the mortals have been relieved of their vanity.”

Have you seen this film, or a print of it?

Prints of films thought lost still turn up in attics, private collections and archives. A record like this one is how the next one gets found.

Tell us about a print

Cast and crew

Director
Lucius J. Henderson
Cast
Madeline Fairbanks as pixies Tinker and Pam
Marion Fairbanks

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

Watch instead

Films you can watch from the same company

Matched by cast, director and kind
A frame from The Little Girl Next Door14:20
1912 · Same leadThe Little Girl Next Door
A frame from Shep’s Race with Death12:15
1914 · Same leadShep’s Race with Death
A frame from The Children’s Hour12:30
1913 · Same leadThe Children’s Hour

More about this film

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1912 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “As Others See Us”. thanhouser.org/films/as-others-see-us/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known