Volume II: Filmography

LITTLE MISCHIEF

September 6, 1914 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,016 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Adapted from a poem of the same name

Cast: Helen Badgley, Carey L. Hastings, Ethel Jewett

REVIEW, The Bioscope, December 3, 1914:

"Here is a wholly delightful little picture dealing with the enchanting naughtiness of an impish, but irresistible, child. The film possesses no plot whatsoever, and yet is far more attractive than many intricately constructed plays. The love of children is a more or less universal passion, and there are few of us who could not pleasurably occupy many hours watching an ordinary youngster at play. How much more fascinating, therefore, to spend some 15 carefully selected minutes with that entirely sweet little minx, Helen Badgley, of the Thanhouser Company.

"Long experience, even at her tender age, has made Helen Badgley quite accustomed to the camera, and in the present film she gleefully performs wicked pranks quite unconscious of the recording angel turning his handle beside her. She enters into the spirit of everything with perfectly natural, spontaneous enthusiasm, and there is never a trace of artificial posing to spoil the charm of the picture. It will give everyone pleasure to see this sunny-faced, irresponsible kiddie, and the film will go straight to the hearts of all mothers."

REVIEW, by Kitty Kelly, The Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1914:

"The bright and only shining star of the film is little Miss Helen Badgley, and she is quite sufficient to illuminate the whole picture, contributing an added radiance by reflection to the observers so fortunate as to see her. One couldn't exactly call the picture a 'drama,' though it is full of events and possesses capital climaxes. Too much like real life it is to be tagged with any such pretentious label as 'drama.' It is a first class cross section of the happenstances in any home when the young person is on a rampage, which will awake responsive thrills in the hearts of the many possessors of young persons in all of whom to parental eyes seem just as fascinating as the Thanhouser twinkler.

"Miss Mischief begins her day at home alone by dressing up in the hat and skirt and beads which were never intended for her wear, and admiring her full length beauty in the dresser mirror, and concludes that phase of it by falling down over the handle of her mother's fancy parasol and dividing it into two trim parts. A secret session in the jam closet left Miss Mischief in such a state of adhesiveness to all objects encountered that even she, with her aversion to quantities of water in applied form, was obliged to admit that washing might help matters. This led to a session in the bathroom, where she became so infatuated with playing that she was a fish as to forget to shut off the water tap. A trickling stream penetrating to the kitchen led the cook to investigate the flooded situation in the bathroom and take Miss Mischief in hand, administering a real scrubbing and brushing and dressing, along with a real scolding, one is forced to suspect from her frowning face, until Miss Helen smiles a hole into her forbidding armor, providing a leakage for the sunshine of her love. Besides being an irresistible baby, Helen Badgley is an accomplished little actress, and her performance throughout the picture is realistic and winsome and of childish naughtiness."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, September 26, 1914:

"A pretty little film taken from the well-known poem of the same title. The Thanhouser Kidlet spends the day at home alone and has a high time breaking ornaments, eating jam, bathing in the tub and the like. The cook arrives and finishes the bath for her. A very attractive child picture."

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