Volume II: Filmography

HILDA'S HUSKY HELPER

Advertisement from Reel Life (F-930)

(Falstaff)

January 6, 1916 (Thursday)

Length: 1 reel (1,030 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Louise Emerald Bates (Hilda), Claude Cooper (Charlie, the clerk), Frances Keyes (stenographer)

Notes: 1. The title appeared erroneously as Hilda's Husky Mother in an article in The Moving Picture World, October 4, 1915, and as Hulda's Husky Helper in several trade listings. 2. This film was originally intended for release in late December 1915, then it was rescheduled to January 6, 1916.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, January 4, 1916:

"Hilda, a smiling young woman, performs wonderful feats of strength on the vaudeville stage. One day she meets Charlie, a meek little clerk, who pours out to her his tale of woe. Charlie, it seems, is teased by his fellow employees and ignored by Marguerite, his sweetheart, who prefers a big, boastful suitor. Hilda, being a very kind-hearted woman, promises the clerk that the following night he shall work as her partner in the vaudeville act. Next evening Charlie's sweetheart and the whole office staff visit the theatre to laugh at Charlie. They go away, however, considerably sobered. Heavy shackles are placed on the wrists of the diminutive clerk. Charlie rends them in twain with a single twist. He brandishes loaded clubs and supports on his shoulders Hilda, two big men and several heavy weights. The audience does not know that the vaudeville star and the two men are suspended from the ceiling, and that the "heavy weights' are made of wood. Next day the meek clerk gets a very different reception at the office. Everybody has been doing some serious thinking - and especially Charlie's boastful rival in love has been thinking what might have happened to him if Charlie had not had complete control of his temper. Marguerite succumbs to her small, strong man."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, January 1, 1916:

"Built on a slight foundation, this film pleases. It is a farce comedy offering, and shows the lovesick clerk getting in trouble all around, and eventually winning out over the heads of all through joining forces with a traveling feminine athlete."

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