Volume II: Filmography

MISS MISCHIEF

a.k.a. LITTLE MISS MISCHIEF

June 8, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Muriel Ostriche (Miss Mischief)

Note: This film marked Muriel Ostriche's first role with Thanhouser.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, June 14, 1913:

Featuring the most flirtatious of flirts. A corking comedy of the countryside, featuring Muriel Ostriche. Watch her play side-splitting tricks on everybody.

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 14, 1913:

Who was it turned the mouse loose in the dormitory? Who put mucilage on Miss Galgreen's false teeth? Who flirted with the French dancing teacher? Who put snuff in the school books? The answer was, 'Miss Mischief.' The girl remained at the seminary exactly one month. The principal finally expelled her. Farm life is usually very monotonous, and the section where 'Miss Mischief's' parents lived was no exception to the rule. But the girl soon made the little rural community as lively as Main Street on a Saturday night. Her father always had to hunt for his spectacles, tacks seemed to find their way into his cowhide boots, the dog frequently raced wildly about the yard with a tin can tied to his tail, and the minister passed the doorway with a hostile glare. The boys all liked her and neglected their work so frequently that their irate fathers had to threaten them with horsewhips to induce them to work. The girls, robbed of sweethearts, prayed for some awful fate to befall the siren.

Two young men, to whom the girl showed the most favor, had decided to fight a duel, but the girl laughed them out of the idea and persuaded them to settle the affair by a battle between their pet roosters. The affair was shrouded with mystery and even 'Miss Mischief's' mother did not know about it. But when various masculine and feminine figures came hurtling down the grain chute and landed on the ground with resounding thumps, she made inquiries. They excitedly told her that the constable was after them and limped and hobbled away as fast as they could. When it became known that the constable had been nowhere around and that it was another of 'Miss Mischief's' pranks, the rage of her dupes was great. So the girl was bundled off to another girl's school whose principal had a reputation as a great disciplinarian, and the little community once more enjoyed peace.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 15, 1913:

This is a very acceptable little comedy. The film abounds in old-fashioned country home scenes. The picnic scene where the rival young men decide to fight a duel for the hand of Miss Mischief, which ends up with a cock fight in the barn, is one of the best, after which the mischievous young woman is again disposed of at school.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 21, 1913:

There is no plot in this picture, but it contains a good deal of amusement. It is a series of mischievous pranks played by a girl sent home in disgrace from college. She flirts with two brothers and they fight a burlesque duel, which she watches from a nearby tree. Later, she gets up a rooster fight and indulges in further exploits of the kind. The girl is attractive and the picture is good.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 18, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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