The story
“Do you believe in love at first sight? Well, Boyd Marshall, who was a bachelor in comfortable quarters and circumstances, would have told you that it is impossible until it happened to him, and then it was only a photograph of a girl which he received through the mail. The photo should have gone to the girl’s brother-in-law, but on account of the similarity in names, it was delivered, through the mischievous machination of Dan Cupid, into the hands of the man who has to come to be the only man in the world for the girl. She was on her way to school by way of New York and expected her brother-in-law to show her some of the show pieces of the great city before she went on to put the finishing touches to her education. Under the circumstances, can you blame Boyd for assuming the role of her brother-in-law and piloting a charming companion about the city? And then when he was compelled to confess and ask forgiveness and took the girl to the brother-in-law’s house, and found him out, how do you suppose he avoided the horns of the dilemma? Why, the only logical way out was ‘The Little Church Around the Corner.’”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 6 December 1913
Another synopsis, from Reel Life · 29 November 19131 min
“We have to thank Mr. Gregory for a dainty, little comedy—showing Miss Ostriche at her prettiest—and Mr. Marshall in even a more fascinating role than usual. It was one of those lightning quick affairs that sometimes happen to confirmed old bachelors. He wouldn’t have believed he could have fallen in love with a girl’s photograph—and, even admitting this, he would have pessimistically declared that the real girl was bound to prove a disappointment. But it happened otherwise—and a jolly day’s sightseeing in old New York, ended romantically enough in ‘The Little Church Around the Corner.’ Harper got his tip through a blunder—by no means unusual—of Uncle Sam’s mail carriers. Cupid must have had a hand in the mix-up. Anyway, the letter to Kathleen’s brother-in-law went to Mr. Henry Harper—and it was a stranger who showed ‘sister Kathleen’ (enroute to her boarding school) the sights of town, falling more in love with the delightful little Westerner every hour. And Kathleen was ‘game.’ She knew all the while that the charming individual who took her from the aquarium to Grant’s tomb—and to luncheon at Sherry’s—and for a taxi ride in the park—and made himself so very agreeable and interesting—was not her ‘brother-in-law.’ If you wish to enjoy one of the merriest romances of the season, don’t fail to see The Little Church Around the Corner.”
