Volume II: Filmography

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE

November 9, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,020 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Muriel Ostriche, Marie Eline (the silly little girl)

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, November 8, 1913:

"Imagine wanting to break an arm to get money from an accident insurance company with which to buy a doll! The silly little girl bought an accident policy for fifty cents in the hope that she would fall, break her arm, and secure the most beautiful, big doll that ever shone from a shop window. And she learned that hunting trouble didn't pay for a minute!"

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 15, 1913:

"The little girl was very happy because she owned more dolls than did any of her playmates. It was therefore a source of sorrow to her when she came home one afternoon and found that the pet dog had eaten the most charming doll in her collection. While bowed down with maternal grief, she did not neglect to look about for a successor to her lost one and while passing a toy store she saw the very doll she wanted. The price was prohibitive, however, and she found that her balance in the bank (toy bank) was much lower than she had anticipated. Still an inspiration came to her, an advertisement calling her attention to the value of accident insurance policies. With 50 cents she bought one, and after looking over the provisions, decided that the easiest way to make money was to break her arm, which carried with it a cash bonus of $200. No one can deny that the girl tried hard to earn the money. She had all sorts of marvelous adventures, but seemed to be indestructible, for do what she would she could not break. Finally, in despair, she went home, tore up the policy, threw the pieces away, and tripping over a rug, fell and broke her arm. Of course she did not get the $200, for she did not have the policy; but it taught her a lesson, and one which she remembered in later years, which is, that it does not pay to hunt for trouble because it is liable to come when one least expects it."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, November 9, 1913:

"The idea of this film is not very new as it concerns a person who tries to get hurt after buying an accident policy and later is injured by a trifling accident. However, it is novel because the 'Thanhouser Kid' is the one who thus seeks trouble. She has lost her favorite dolly and wants one which she sees priced at $10. Having only 50 cents, she buys an accident policy for one day. Then she does various impossible things, such as being run over by a road-roller, blown up by a charge of dynamite, etc. None of these experiences hurt her in the least. So she tears up the policy in disgust. Her object has been to break one arm. After throwing the pieces of the policy from the window she slips on the floor of the room and breaks her arm."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 22, 1913:

"A child desiring to buy a ten-dollar doll invests 50 cents in an accident policy and tries to meet with an injury. Some of the attempts to get hurt were well pictured, but the idea did not seem particularly humorous as whole. Hardly the sort of a scheme a child would attempt, it seemed."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 3, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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