Volume II: Filmography

WHEN ALGY FROZE UP

Working title: AN OLD FASHIONED WINTER

April 24, 1914 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (998 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Cyril Chadwick (Jack DeCourceville, a foreign nobleman), Mignon Anderson (May Gray), Sidney Bracy (Gray, a village banker), Carey L. Hastings (Mrs. Gray, his ambitious wife)

Note: The release date was given erroneously as April 4, 1914 in a synopsis printed in the April 18, 1914 issue of Reel Life.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, April 18, 1914:

"Mrs. Gray, with oodles of money to spend and a limitless ambition, decides, as the de facto head of the Gray family, to marry her daughter, May, to a British nobleman, whose titles take up three lines in 'Burke's Peerage' but who exists on a decidedly small remittance. May is much peeved at her mother's choice of a husband, and when Jack DeCourceville arrives at the village station a sleigh-riding party is made up to meet him. Jack gets all that is in store for him and a little bit more. He finds himself among choice spirits who delight in 'spoofing' him. He is much surprised to learn that in American slang 'breaking the ice' means being rolled in the snow. He is shown all the delights of an old-fashioned American winter by his spirited hostess and her friends. In fact he is given such a cool reception, so to speak, that he decides to take the next train back to Broadway where they have tea sharp at four o'clock and muffins to go with it."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 2, 1914:

"A comedy wherein the plot is laid during an old-fashioned winter in the mise-in-scene, by Lloyd F. Lonergan. An ambitious mother afflicted with more money than brains decides to marry her daughter to an English nobleman. She induces him to come to America where he meets the daughter, who of course dislikes him. With the assistance of her friends and her father, they make it so unpleasant for the mother's choice that he concludes to beat it for dear old England. A laugh-creating offering."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 13, 1914:

"The humor in this comedy depends upon the treatment accorded Lord Algy when he visits the Grays for a very cold weekend in the country. Mother determines that he shall become her son-in-law, but daughter thinks otherwise and father is on her side. Lord Algy is snowballed, dropped out of his sleigh and while he sleeps snow is piled high over the bedclothes. When the comfort-loving Englishman is told that he must remain in the country if he becomes one of the Gray family, he changes his mind about marrying. The film is adequately acted and good photography makes the most of attractive snow scenes."

# # #