Volume II: Filmography

THE GUILTY BABY

Advertisement from The Moving Picture World, February 24, 1912. (F-300)

February 27, 1912 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Helen Badgley (the "guilty" baby), Marie Eline (the workingman's "detective" daughter), Lucy Diestel (the plumber's wife), Florence LaBadie (the wealthy mother)

Cameraman: Carl L. Gregory

Notes: 1. This was the first film for which publicity designated Helen Badgley as "the Thanhouser Kidlet," a name devised by Bert Adler. Earlier, the child appeared in the December 8, 1911 release of Brother Bob's Baby. 2. In the March 9, 1912 issue of The Moving Picture News the release date of this film is listed erroneously as February 26, 1912. 3. Louis Reeves Harrison, a columnist in The Moving Picture World, used the scenario from this film to create a magazine story. 4. In The Motion Picture Story Magazine, March 1912, an expanded story by John Ellerige appeared, based on the scenario of this film. 5. This was one of several Thanhouser films in which the fallible nature of circumstantial evidence furnished the central theme.

ARTICLE by Gordon Trent, The Morning Telegraph, February 18, 1912:

"In another of those strong plots that have become identified with the Thanhouser trademark a solar plexus blow is landed on the circumstantial evidence theory as it obtains today. A society woman misses some gems that she left on her dresser. Her baby's nurse could not have taken them, since she was with her employer during the period that the jewels seemed to have been taken. But a plumber at work in the house was seen to dash out rather too speedily just before the gems disappeared. And some other things pointed him out as the guilty one, by all the rules of circumstantial evidence. The truth was, though, that the baby daughter of the lady of the house had playfully rolled the gems into the 'neck' of her toy rabbit. And replacing the 'head' of the 'bunny' she safely carried about her the jewels that two score detectives were trying to locate! Thanhouser releases the story under the title of The Guilty Baby on Tuesday, February 27."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, February 17, 1912:

"The society woman believed that the workingman was the thief, and the case of circumstantial evidence was sufficient to make the police agree with her. The workingman was repairing a leak in the bathroom that opened off her boudoir. The woman entered her room, and in taking off her veil snapped the catch of her necklace. She was about to fix it when her baby entered the room, and she dropped the jewels on her dresser to play with the baby for a moment, and give the child a box of candy. Then she crossed to her desk telephone, turned when the nurse entered to take the child out, and could swear later that the nurse was not near the dresser. A few moments later she turned around in time to see the workingman dash across the room and out. She walked over to the dresser and her necklace was gone.

"That was the story she told the police, and it was absolutely true in every detail. The workingman was arrested and denied his guilt. He explained his hasty departure by saying that he had a sick wife and that when he left home he told his little girl where he would be during the day and to summon if her mother grew worse. From the window he saw his daughter in the street, and fearing the worst, had rushed out. Like the statement of the woman, his story was absolutely true. But she was believed, while he was cast into a cell. The daughter of the prisoner found the thief when the police were all at fault. It was the baby, and the little girl proved it. Still, as the culprit really didn't know what she was doing and was too small to even spank, she escaped punishment. The case, however, taught the mother that sometimes even the clearest of circumstantial evidence is faulty."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 3, 1912:

"Recently the Thanhouser Company presented a comedy detective story [Surelock Jones]. This time we have a dramatic story quite as successful in its way as any other serious story of crime this same company released. A plumber is accused of stealing a necklace which had been laid on a dresser by its owner on her return home. Her little child was the innocent cause of the trouble, though this is not found out by the mother and those interested until the end of the action. The plumber was able to tell a straight story, which was not believed owing to the circumstance of his running away just prior to the missing of the necklace, though he had hastened to see his sick wife. Telling in its sincerity, convincing in its presentation, the photoplay stands the test of close observation exceedingly well and is a subject which should win success for months to come."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 9, 1912:

"The baby, a child of about three, hid a string of pearls in a candy box shaped like a bunny, and the plumber, who was repairing the water faucets in the suite, was accused of its theft. The plumber's wife was sick at home, and heart-rending circumstances made the arrest tragic and extreme. The Thanhouser Kid plays the plumber's child, and it is she who discovers the gems in the other girl's box, and this brings in a touch of humor that is very amusing. The picture isn't wholly convincing, but it gets over very well and will make a good feature. It will do for any occasion."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, March 6, 1912:

"A story, the basis of which is not altogether new, is worked out with such pleasing results in this film that it takes on that element of freshness in life so characteristic of the work of this painstaking company. The lady's pearl necklace is picked up by the little girl and put into the child's toy rabbit. The plumber, who had been working in the bathroom and who has been suddenly called home by his own little girl to attend to his sick wife, is arrested for the supposed theft. The plumber's child, after following her father to the police station, goes home through the park and is present when the lady's child reveals the necklace of the rabbit. 'Arrest that person' she demands of a policeman, and the officer, realizing that something is wrong, takes the children and the nurse to the station, where the finding of the necklace results in the release of the plumber. James Cruze was fine as the plumber. His daughter was played by the Thanhouser Kid, who is in danger of becoming spoiled. Florence LaBadie played the wealthy lady and little Helen Badgley was her baby."

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