Volume II: Filmography

A BEAUTY PARLOR GRADUATE

British release title: A BEAUTY PARLOUR GRADUATE

December 9, 1913 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel (1,025 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Harry Benham (Jack, a rising young lawyer), Mignon Anderson (May, his wife, careless in dress), Justus D. Barnes (Uncle Bill), Florence LaBadie

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, December 6, 1913:

"Hubby was peeved at Wifey because she didn't dress, walk, talk and look like the fashionable matrons of the day. So Wifey became 'fashionable' via the beauty parlor and swell dressmaker route. Did she please Hubby then? Nay, nay. See the film."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, December 13, 1913:

"The young lawyer was rising rapidly in his profession, but as he grew more and more prosperous he could not help but be ashamed of his wife. She was a fresh young country girl when he married her, but in the city she did not seem to be able to make anything out of herself. Her dowdiness and utter lack of attraction with strangers incensed him, and after a number of 'breaks' on her part, there was a quarrel. The husband wanted to know why she could not be stylish, and finally stormed out of the house, leaving her very unhappy indeed. The wife thought the matter over, however, and as she loved her husband, she decided to try to please him. Accordingly, she ordered quantities of good clothes and went to a beauty parlor and was beautified within an inch of her life. She even learned how to walk and stand in the new and extremely foolish way, and when her husband returned in the evening, she was prepared to give him the surprise of his life. It might be added that this was the one evening the husband did not want her to be stylish, for his rich old country uncle was with him, and for several hours the aforesaid uncle had been explaining how glad he was that his nephew's wife was 'a sensible woman and not dressed up like a doll.' He also intimated that one reason he was making his nephew his heir was because he knew the wife would not waste the money which had been amassed as a result of much toil and privation. Under the circumstances the 'dressed up doll' failed to make a hit, and uncle left after announcing his intention to make a new will. Naturally the husband raged at his wife, and the poor woman was broken-hearted, for she found that by trying to please her husband, she had only given him new cause for resentment."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 6, 1913:

"This bright little play is a striking example of good intentions misdirected - and also an excellent suggestion to young married men as to methods of improving their wives which they might better avoid. May is a lovely unsophisticated country girl who cannot seem to adapt herself to city ways or the constant dress-parade. Jack is stung by the remarks of their acquaintances and the feeling that her appearance is hurting him professionally. He shows her fashion plates - tells her to present a better appearance. She loves him sufficiently to wish to please him - goes through a course of sprouts in a beauty parlor - orders new clothes which she doesn't know how to wear - and springs the result on him when he brings home Uncle Bill, who has been very much pleased with her former naturalness and intends to make them his heirs. The effect upon him is disastrous, of course - and takes a lot of explaining which doesn't quite explain."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 14, 1913:

"Miss Anderson makes an attractive young wife of good intentions, but poor taste, in this story. A rising lawyer wants his wife to look more stylish, although she is very attractive and pretty as she is. Goaded by his remarks, she patronizes a beauty parlor and invests in clothes which are entirely unsuited to her, and which she does not know how to wear. Uncle Bill has been very fond of her, and is sorely displeased at her strange appearance. The well-meaning girl finally makes him understand her reasons for her attempt at style."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 20, 1913:

"The scenes inside the beauty parlor in this film present quite an interest, particularly for women observers. The plain little wife decides to become beautiful to please the visiting uncle, but later discovers he does not care for frills. The idea is pleasing, but it might have been handled a little stronger in some respects."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 10, 1913:

"A lawyer's wife who is so dowdy that her husband is ashamed of her is presented as rather an exaggerated type in this film. The situation is good, but several points of vantage have been lost sight of at the producing end. To the average audience this picture would prove intensely amusing."

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