Volume II: Filmography

MARY'S GOAT

October 27, 1912 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (495 feet this section) (split with Taking Care of Baby at the beginning)

Character: Comedy

Cast: Florence LaBadie (Mary), Riley Chamberlin (Mary's father)

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, October 26, 1912:

"John Green's fortune little by little ebbed away until at last he was forced to mortgage his home. Times did not get better for him, and finally he was told by the holder of the mortgage that unless he paid the principal at once, he would lose his home. The town's banker would not advance him money, nor would any of his friends. Despair had already seized him when he stepped into the little country store owned by William Warren, a crusty old bachelor, who was the last person in the world he would have asked to help him. But the old storekeeper actually volunteered to loan the amount needed, but he exacted one condition, which was that unless the note was paid at a certain time John Green's daughter would have to marry him. The pretty young girl did not view this condition with favor, but she and her father both felt confident that they could meet the note at maturity, so this curious condition was embodied in the note and the girl signed it. The day the note was due, John Green went to the bank and drew out the amount necessary to pay the storekeeper. But on the way home he lost his pocketbook and the old storekeeper found it. The finder knew to whom the pocketbook belonged, but decided not to return it until after the note was due, for he wanted the girl to marry him and he knew it was the only way to win her. But he reckoned without Mary's goat. The intelligent animal delivered Mary from her trying position and sent the wicked old storekeeper from the little home."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, November 3, 1912:

"This splits a reel with Taking Care of Baby. Si, the old grocer, loves Mary and takes her note for $1,000 with which she pays off the mortgage on condition that Mary pay the note in one year or marry him. At the end of a year Mary's father has the money, but drops it in the street. Si picks it up, but hides it. He then goes to claim Mary. While he, Mary's father and the girl are bickering the goat eats up the note, thus leaving Si powerless. In the end Mary is hugging the goat."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture News, October 26, 1912:

"Mary's Goat is rich in comedy as well as in dramatic situations."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, October 30, 1912:

"'All's well that ends well,' never proved more true than in this simple drama with a farcical ending. A goat's capacity for everything that is uneatable brings about the happy ending when he calmly eats the note belonging to the girl's father and held by the amateur loan shark. When business was poor and the father needed money he was refused on every side by his friends. A crusty old bachelor who owned a store offered to loan the necessary sum, with the stipulation that if the father did not pay it at a given date the daughter should marry him. The girl's confidence that they could meet the note when due influenced her to accept the offer and she signed. The day the note was due, the father, returning from the bank, loses the money he had saved. The bachelor finds the missing money and withholds it, thinking to force the marriage, but he did not reckon with the wily goat."

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