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Rena Rogers, [?] Arthur Moon?, Ernest Morrison and Paddy McGuire.
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Just for a Kid
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Jack Dillon (John Francis Dillon)
Cast: Paddy McQuire (Paddy McGuire) [Bungling Bill], Ben Turpin [Bloggie], Rena Rogers [Rena], Arthur Moon [Arthur, Rena’s husband], Ed J. Laurie (Edward J. Laurie) [the doctor], Jack Gaines [Joshua Ellitt], Ernest Morrison (Sunshine Sammy Morrison) [the child]
Vogue Films, Incorporated, production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Released [?] 2 or 8? July 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Joshua Elliott, who loves the ladies, flirts with Rena, who is taking her baby to the park to see her father, who is the Park Commissioner. Elliott mistakes Rena’s pleasantness for flirtatious inclinations, and he grabs and kisses her on the park bench. Her husband, Moon, discovers them. Snatching a camera from a child, he photographs the scene. He threatens to sue Elliott for alienation of his wife’s affections. Desperate at having no money to offset the inevitable expose, should he be the defendant in a suit of this kind, Elliott schemes to find a way to obtain money enough to buy off Moon. Bungling Bill and Bloggie, two rogues, read in the paper that a prize is offered by the leading newspaper in the city for the most perfect baby. As the prize is of no little magnitude, being $50,000 they decide to get a baby and try for the prize. They see Moon and his wife enter their home with their child. Bill schemes to kidnap the kid. He engages Moon in conversation at the front door while Bloggie enters the house through the rear. Entering the parlor, Bloggie arrives in time to find that Rena is struggling with a burglar. The burglar floors Bloggie and makes his escape through the front door, bowling Moon and Bill over in doing so. These two then enter the house to find Bloggie with the fainting Rena in his arms. While Moon is flaying Bloggie for loving his wife, Bill steals the suitcase and the kid and safely makes his getaway to a field where he finds the contents of the suitcase are Rena’s clothes. He puts them on to take the baby to the contest. Bloggie in the meanwhile flees from the ire of Moon and steals a baby carriage he finds in front of a house. He later discovers that the baby in the carriage is a pickaninny. The police apprehend the kidnappers and they find Elliott with Moon’s kid in his arms. He met Bill and paid him to loan him the child, thinking Bill in the woman’s garb its mother and pursue him. Elliott arrives on the scene where Bill and Bloggie are changing clothes. Bill offering to do this if Bloggie would let him take the child he has, the pickaninny, to the contest. Bill has scarcely departed for the contest, when Elliott gives Bloggie Moon’s child and runs off. Bloggie, who has stolen from Bill the money Elliott gave him for the loan of the child, runs off followed by the police. He meets Moon who is shooting mad, and beating him, arrives at the baby contest, while the unfortunate park employee and cops search the town for a trace of the kidnappers. At the contest, Bloggie wins the prize with his son Oscar only to find the prize is offered to encourage the birth of babies in China, and for this reason the prize of $50,000 is paid in coin of that realm, equal in America to about ten cents. Bloggie shows to Bill the money he stole from him, but before the Bungling Man has time to wreak vengeance, he and his compatriot make a hasty retreat before the onslaught of the kidnapped children’s parents.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 2 December 2022.
References: Spehr-American p. 598 : Website-IMDb.
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