My Baby

With her two older sisters married, Mary Pickford says she'll never leave her father. Then along comes Henry B. Walthall, and, well... But then he says daddy can't come along on the honeymoon, so W. Christie Miller bars his home to them. A couple of years later, when he finds out he has a grandchild, he regrets his decision.

This one has a large number of titles for a Griffith movie by this time, but they mostly serve as chapter titles. The story is told visually, in the shiny patch on Miller's coat, in the obvious farmhands at the large dinner table, and a hundred other moments of faces, and small but meaningful gestures.

When the story begins, there's a double wedding and two of an old man's daughters are hitched. His youngest (Mary Pickford) is outraged they'd leave their father (which is a bit strange) and she vows never to leave the old man...which is pretty Freudian if you ask me! Well, this dopey girl has a VERY short memory, as soon she sees her boyfriend and he wants her to run away with him and be married. Sadly, the new husband doesn't want Daddy living with them and the wife and father soon become estranged. Is there any hope for this grouch and his daughters?

The cast in this D. W. Griffith film is impressive as many future stars are in the film, including Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Walthall (who was a huge star back in the day). Seeing it just to see them is a good idea!

Did I like the movie? Yes and no. The general theme was interesting but the timing was very poor. Having the youngest daughter pledge to stand by her father forever and then abandon him minutes later sure felt rushed!! Stretching it out a bit or showing a greater passage of time would have sure helped. Still, it's pretty watchable even 110 years later.

Anita Loos ("Gentlemen Prefer Blondes") got into movies by writing screenplays for D. W. Griffith in his Biograph period. This is a wonderful one which deals with misunderstandings between a father and daughter. It is both sweet and funny and tells us a lot about the age it was made (circa 1912).

Mary Pickford seems to betray her father by getting married after promising to stick with her father, but Loos is being realistic and a beautiful young woman like Pickford could hardly be expected to keep her promise and remain an unmarried virgin for long.

The father, betrayed, banishes her from his house. A few years later, when he finds she had a baby he is curious to see if she resembles his dead wife. He is mistaken for a thief by Mary's new family when he visits the home to see the baby.

All of this is still funny today and must have been even more hilarious during the time period. I was surprised to see how hysterical Mary and her new family got at the idea of a harmless old man sneaking into a house, but one can still see the situation causing panic today (2023).

Enjoy this wonderfully humanistic comedy from a time when movies were new and the great cinema pioneers were leaving their legacy for the human race.