Volume II: Filmography

THE TWINS

June 18, 1912 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy

Director: Lucius Henderson

Cast: Marion and Madeline Fairbanks (the twins), John B. Maher (the uncle)

Notes: 1. This film marked the screen debut of The Thanhouser Twins. 2. In an advertisement in the June 5, 1912 issue of The New York Dramatic Mirror this film was erroneously headlined as Three Twins, which prompted a correction notice in the issue of June 12, 1912: "ONE TWIN TOO MANY. Through an odd error of the types last week Thanhouser Company's release of Tuesday, June 18, was made to read 'Three Twins' instead of 'The Twins.' The story of this picture is entirely dissimilar from the well-known musical comedy, The Twins, being an original comedy-drama presented in the inimitable Thanhouser style." 3. Lucius Henderson is identified erroneously as the uncle in some accounts. 4. An expanded story by Allen Stanhope, based upon the scenario of this film, appeared in The Motion Picture Story Magazine, July 1912.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912:

"The Twins. A grouchy old uncle adopts one of 'em, but when they become orphans - declining to have the other, who forthwith is sent to an orphanage. But the orphanage twin escapes from there and joins her sister at the uncle's. Here, through consummate cleverness and their remarkable resemblance to each other, they fool the uncle into thinking just one sister is in the house."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912:

"They lived in the country with their father, a widower, and although they were poor they were happy. Then the father died and there was no one to love and care for the two little girls. The neighbors were poor, and none of them would undertake the care of the children, and for a time it looked as if they would be sent to an institution. Their pastor, however, in searching their father's few effects, found a name of a distant relative, a rich resident of New York, and wrote asking him to look after the children. The uncle, a selfish old bachelor, could not see why he should be bothered, but he finally consented to receive one of the girls. The other, he said, must shift as best she could. Each child wanted the other to have the good fortune. Finally the minister picked out the one who was to go to New York, and sorrowfully led the other to the orphan asylum, which was designed to be her home. In the city, a little girl soon won the love of her cross old uncle, but he was too shame-faced to admit it. She was happy in her new life, her one regret being that she was separated from her twin, but she hoped at some time they might be brought together again.

"The child in the orphan asylum mourned constantly and at last ran away. She hunted up her sister, who received her joyously, smuggled her into the rich house, and hid her away in her room. When two children determine to be as little nuisance as one, they can accomplish it. As the twins looked exactly alike it was possible for them to divide up the good times, and some meals gruff old cousing [sic] ate with one child and some with the other. And the one who dined oraged [sic] for the other. Gruff old uncle, on his way to bed one night after a midnight cigar, stopped to look into his little niece's room to see if she was all right. He never would have admitted that he would do so, nor that he was growing mighty fond of the bright child who made her home with him. The fact is that he bent over the bed tenderly. Then he started with surprise for there were two sweet faces on the pillow and they looked exactly alike.

"Before he had solved the problem the twins awoke. Pitifully they admitted their crime and begged him not to separate them again. The stern old man gazed at them. The men who had known him for years would have been surprised to see the tender look on his face. 'I was just beginning to realize,' he said, 'that a little girl had won a place in my heart. I don't know which of you it is, but I guess you are equally guilty. Send either of you away? I'd like to see anybody try it.'

"Down in Wall Street some time later, where gruff old uncle is a power, a broker was telling a group something that interested them and it had nothing to do with stocks or bonds either. 'I was up in Central Park today,' said the broker, 'and there I saw him. He had two little girls, twins, dressed alike and they were all feeding squirrels. He told me that they were his nieces, but he could not have been prouder had they been his daughters. They are making the old man young again, and they are really fond of him.'"

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 23, 1912:

"One of the sweetest child photoplays that has been released since the beginnings of motion pictures. Two orphaned little girls, twins, are separated through poverty, one being sent to a rich uncle in New York and the other to an orphan asylum. The uncle is a grouchy old fellow who has small use for children or anything else save the hoarding of wealth. But gradually the little girl wins the way to his heart. Then the other twin escapes from the asylum and finds her way to her sister, who hides her in her own room. For days they take turns at dining with the uncle, he never suspecting that he is entertaining two chicks instead of one, so strong is their resemblance. Whichever one eats with him purloins some tidbits and conveys them to the other, and thus by turns they live. "One night the uncle decides to take a peep at his sleeping niece, and so he softly makes his way to the nursery, and there, to his surprise, he is confronted by two youngsters instead of one. They awake and plead with him not to send them away or to separate them, and he declares that that is the last thing he or anyone else shall do. He is seen one day in the park with his wards by a fellow broker, who tells the amazing story to his associates of the exchange, and all agree that a miracle of miracles has been worked. Delightful in every sense, this photoplay should score one of the big successes of the year. The Thanhouser Twins may be sure of a welcome wherever they appear and as often as they choose."

# # #