Thanhouser Company trademark: a T and C monogram inside an octagonTHANHOUSERCompany Film PreservationBuy DVDs

1914Thanhouser CompanyOne reelComedy

The Eugenic Boy

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

“Cyril is Mamma’s pet. He takes a sterilized bath three times a day and sleeps between sterilized sheets. He drinks sterilized water, has his temperature taken every three hours and in general leads a sterilized life. Mr. Pointdexter would like to see his boy join in the sports enjoyed by other youngsters, but mamma, who spends a great deal of time reading books on eugenics and prophylactery, is shocked almost into a faint at the idea. While the governess and the park policemen are enjoying themselves in the park Cyril steals away, meets Mike, a very tough, red-headed youngster, and promptly resents the latter’s insults and jibes at his long curls by mashing Mike’s snub nose. Pleased to find that Cyril really has the makings of a real boy in him, Mike stands sponsor for his adversary and Cyril is informally introduced to the gang, who are playing baseball nearby. He knocks out a home run when the bases are full and immediately is crowned a hero. Meanwhile Cyril’s absence is discovered. Several Italians are suspected of the kidnapping and the police are notified. Hysterical with anxiety, mamma takes to her bed with a corps of trained nurses around her. Mr. Pointdexter, the police and servants find Cyril just as he slides into home plate with the winning run. He is smeared with mud and grime but, strange to say, the fact seems to please Mr. Pointdexter. Overjoyed at her son’s safe return, Mrs. Pointdexter consents thereafter that her son shall live the normal life of a small boy.”

Summary from Reel Life · 14 March 1914

What the papers said

3 reviews · 1 advertisement

“Though ‘eugenic’ seems hardly the word in this case, the little comedy has a human touch which will not be denied. The boy, kept in and pampered and looked after by a doting mamma and a female nurse, nearly goes crazy at the sight of some other boys playing baseball, and later when nurse takes him out and becomes absorbed …

Read in full · 1 min

“Though ‘eugenic’ seems hardly the word in this case, the little comedy has a human touch which will not be denied. The boy, kept in and pampered and looked after by a doting mamma and a female nurse, nearly goes crazy at the sight of some other boys playing baseball, and later when nurse takes him out and becomes absorbed in conversation of the policeman on the beat he makes his escape and hurries to the ball ground. He has to lick one of the young toughs here gathered before they will let him play, and he does so as much to his own surprise as their own. Then he has a wonderful time, makes a home run and does everything a healthy boy ought to be allowed to do. Meanwhile the nurse, panic-stricken, turns in an alarm to the police, the mother nearly has nervous prostration, and even the father, who has not approved of the way the boy has been brought up, is worried. They find him just as he is sliding for home, and the father leads the congratulations. The picture closes with the little boy telling his father of the fight and the latter’s taking him off to have his hair cut—for the first time.”

The Morning Telegraph · 22 March 1914

“A poor little rich boy is being brought up on a hospital regimen by order of his too-careful mother, a woman with advanced ideas. He breaks loose and has a good time, after which his father gets spunk enough to have his hair cut, and prospects are more bright for the future. If a player who impersonates a boy had …

Read in full · 1 min

“A poor little rich boy is being brought up on a hospital regimen by order of his too-careful mother, a woman with advanced ideas. He breaks loose and has a good time, after which his father gets spunk enough to have his hair cut, and prospects are more bright for the future. If a player who impersonates a boy had been of the male gender, the picture would have had more punch; for it might have been made convincing. There is much that is distinctly good in it and we think it will please many just as it is. The photography is clear.”

The Moving Picture World · 21 March 1914

More reviews

15 April 1914The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“An up-to-the-minute theme that should interest parents with offspring still in their formative stages. The Eugenic Boy—played by the Thanhouser Kid, is a healthy victim of nurses, doctors, and petting. He sighs for the freedom of the open lot, and one day eludes his nursemaid, and licks the captain of the boy’s baseball team, thereby gaining the right to play, and romps about the diamond while his parents are in the agony of despair over their missing child. Having marvelously keen eyes, detectives follow The Eugenic Boy’s footsteps over well-beaten ground, and even rocks, leading to the ball field, and the lost child is recovered. The close of the film implies that pampering methods will be abandoned. Some exaggerations for the sake of comedy effects may be overlooked in view of the good quality of the production.”

Advertisement

14 March 1914Reel Life1 min

“’The Eugenic Boy’ is one of the Thanhouser Twins—a repetition of our last week’s stunt, wherein we gave you a Twin alone for the first time in our lives. Lila Chester plays the Twin’s mother, Harry DeJonge her father, and the whole film gives you a fine laugh.”

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

Cast
Charles T. Horan as police lieutenant
Frances Keyes as governess
Harry De Jonge as Mr. Pointdexter
Lila Chester as Mrs. Pointdexter
Marion Fairbanks
Maude Pease
Mike as Mike Googan
Miss Maude Pease as trained nurse
William Noel as park policeman
Writer
Theodore Osborn Eltonhead

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 Uncle’s Namesakes15:00
1913 · Same castUncle’s Namesakes
A frame from The Children’s Hour12:30
1913 · Same castThe Children’s Hour
A frame from When Hungry Hamlet Fled12:27
1915 · Same castWhen Hungry Hamlet Fled

More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. The Thanhouser Twin in this film was not the one appearing in Guilty or Not Guilty, released March 8, 1914, to which listing refer. Reel Life identified the twin in Guilty or Not Guilty as Madeline, and, by implication, the twin in The Eugenic Boy as Marion, but theatregoers were not so informed. However, Reel Life, March 14, 1914, page 11, printed a scene from the play and identified the twin as Madeline! Likewise, the synopsis and cast list in the same issue named Madeline. 2. Some sources name Marie Eline, earlier known as The Thanhouser Kid, in the role of Cyril Reginald Pointdexter, the eugenic boy. The cast list above is from Reel Life.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “The Eugenic Boy”. thanhouser.org/films/the-eugenic-boy/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known