Baby Mine (1917 film)

Baby Mine is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by both John S. Robertson and Hugo Ballin and starring Madge Kennedy. The picture marked Kennedy's screen debut and was one of the first films produced by Samuel Goldwyn as an independent after founding his own studio.

Frank Morgan and Madge Kennedy, 1917
Baby Mine
Directed byJohn S. Robertson
Hugo Ballin
Written byDoty Hobart (adaptation)
Based onBaby Mine
by Margaret Mayo
Produced bySamuel Goldwyn
StarringMadge Kennedy
CinematographyArthur Edeson
Distributed byGoldwyn Pictures
Release date
  • September 23, 1917 (1917-09-23)
Running time
6 reels
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The film is based on a 1910 Broadway play Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo. The story was filmed once again as Baby Mine (1928) with Charlotte Greenwood at MGM, the successor to Goldwyn Pictures. This version, however, at one time thought lost, is held in the French archive Cinematheque Francais.[1][2][3][4]

Plot

As described in a film magazine,[5] Alfred (Morgan) catches his wife Zoie (Kennedy) in so many lies that he leaves home and establishes an office in Boston. He is very fond of children so Zoie and Jimmie's wife Aggie (Adams) conspire to tell him that an heir has arrived, with Zoie planning on adopting a baby. Before arrangements have been completed for the baby's adoption, Alfred arrives home, necessitating the stealing of a child from a foundling home. The mother of the baby, however, sets up such a rumpus that they decide to return it and borrow the washerwoman's new-born babe, one of a set of twins. More complications result when Jimmie (Cumberland) comes in with the other twin, followed by the washerwoman's husband demanding his children back. While the three babies are being cooed over by Alfred, who believes he is the father of triplets, the respective parents arrive and claim their children.

Cast

Reception

Like many American films of the time, Baby Mine was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors ordered cut a closeup of money.[6]

References
  1. Progressive Silent Film List: Baby Mine at silentera.com
  2. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20 by The American Film Institute, c.1988
  3. Baby Mine as produced on Broadway first at Daly's Theatre then Majestic & Lyric Theatres beginning August 23, 1910; IBDb.com
  4. The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Baby Mine
  5. "Reviews: Baby Mine". Exhibitors Herald. New York: Exhibitors Herald Company. 5 (13): 25. September 22, 1917.
  6. "Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors". Exhibitors Herald. 5 (11): 33. September 8, 1917.
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