Volume II: Filmography

THE WAY TO A MAN'S HEART

Production still with William Russell. (F-530)

March 2, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: A California Comedy

Director: Lucius J. Henderson

Cameraman: Arthur A. Cadwell

Cast: Florence LaBadie, William Russell, members of Thanhouser's California stock company

Location: Southern California

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, March 8, 1913:

A 'Down East' boy went out West to seek his fortune and succeeded. Like all successful men he had a hobby. His was that cooks had deteriorated and the chefs of today were not in the same class with the housekeepers of his boyhood. He was particularly emphatic when telling of the old boarding house Down East, where the landlady cooked a New England boiled dinner such as never been heard of before or since. The rich man's thoughts turned to it one day when he was trying to dine in a fashionable mountain resort hotel. Everything brought before him displeased him, and he finally left the table in disgust and as hungry as when he had entered the place. Driving along moodily in his automobile he noticed a sign on a little cottage which read 'New England Boiled Dinner 25 Cents.' Hastily he stopped the auto and rushed back to the cottage. At first he could not believe that the sign was true, but the savory odors that were wafted to him convinced him that it was not a dream. He entered and ate a New England boiled dinner, and then followed it up with several others. To the pretty waitress he expressed a desire to meet the cook, and to his joy he found that she was his landlady of 20 years ago. Naturally he did not want to lose her. She was older than he, so he did not contemplate matrimony. But the daughter was young, pretty and attractive, so now she presides at the rich man's table as his wife, while the servants, under the vigilant eye of mother, have become passed masters in the art of preparing New England boiled dinners.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 9, 1913:

A clever photo-story telling how a rich man secured what his mind and body most craved for - the cooking of his boyhood days. He had become rich in his business, but always dreamed of the good things his landlady used to prepare for him in the humble boarding house in New England. One day in his travels he came upon a boarding house with an alluring sign. He went inside and tested the small priced dinner and recalled his boyhood days. He found that the cook as none other than his old landlady, and so to secure her for life he married her daughter, and thereafter his stomach and his heart went hand in hand. That housewives and all others who cater to man's appetite will be given extra work after viewing the films seems a certainty.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 8, 1913:

A young man leaves a New England boarding house and goes West to make his fortune. Fifteen years later, when he has succeeded in this, he meets the same lady and her daughter in California, when he drops into their boarding house for a New England dinner. The passage of 15 years is not shown sufficiently in the characters. The photos are good and the story is pleasing and not overdrawn.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, February 26, 1913:

While the photography and settings would indicate considerable care on the director's part to make a high class little comedy, the two young women in the female roles have nearly spoiled the illusion in the last portion of the film by poor make-up, or rather in failing to show a difference in their appearance after a lapse of 15 years. Also, the leading man, who acts with considerable zest, is guilty of this error. The story is simple enough, and in several situations there is opportunity for amusement. Still the spectator is at a loss to know at first whether it is the mother or the daughter the rich Westerner is after - their ages appear so uniform that it is difficult to tell them apart. Coming from the New England states, the young man has made his fortune, but tires of hotel cooking. He is attracted to a boarding house where they advertise a 'New England boiled dinner,' and in the owner he discovers his old landlady of the East. The rest of the tale is obvious.

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