Volume II: Filmography

WILLIE, THE WILD MAN

Production stills: (L) with Harry Benham (as Willie) and Mignon Anderson. Courtesy of Dominik Bruzzese. (F-572)

and (R) Mignon Anderson and Harry Benha,, courtesy of the American Museum of the Moving Image/Lawrence Williams Collection (M-10-X)

British release title: WILLIE AND THE WILD MAN

July 27, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,000 feet)

Character: Comedy

Cast: Harry Benham (Willie), Mignon Anderson

Note: This subject was released in England under a slightly different title, Willie and the Wild Man, by the Western Import Co., Ltd., on November 13, 1913.

ADVERTISEMENT, The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 23, 1913:

"It was a shame to take the money - and the girl - Willie did it so easy! His father was too soft to be true, and so the wild man costume got really quick results, by changing it at the correct time."

SYNOPSIS, The Bioscope, October 30, 1913:

"Comedy and drama are delightfully interwoven in this release, which deals with the exploits of a 'wild man,' who is kept as an attraction to a neighbouring tourist hotel. By a clever quick change he rescues a millionaire, and is rewarded by a position and the hand of the plutocrat's daughter."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 2, 1913:

"He was the son of a prominent financier, but was a bad poker player. His repeated request for funds exasperated his father, and the latter finally cut off his allowance. The young man found himself stranded at a summer hotel without money and threatened with eviction by the hard-hearted landlord. The chief attraction of the hotel was the wonderful wild man, who lived in a cave in the nearby mountain. People flocked from distant points to see the wonderful being, and, incidentally, stopped at the hotel. The wild man tired of his lonely life and resigned his position. The question of a successor was a perplexing one to the hotel owner, until he thought of his delinquent guest. The idea of prancing around the mountain in scant attire did not appeal to the young man, but the hotel owner finally induced him to take the post. He was a very satisfactory wild man, and far exceeded his predecessor. A millionaire came to the hotel with his pretty daughter. The girl took a walk through the mountains and there encountered the wild man. And unlike many others, she did not flee, but faced him fearlessly. The wild man was so anxious to gain her good opinion that he told her who he really was, and she found that her brother was his intimate friend.

"On his day off, the wild man, once more handsome and well-dressed, called at the hotel. Acquaintanceship soon ripened into love, but the girl's father refused his consent. However, a few days later, when passing through the mountains, he was captured by the terrible wild man, who bound him to a tree and then disappeared. A few minutes later, the young man whom he had refused to consider as a son-in-law appeared, released him from his perilous plight, and escorted him to safety. The millionaire often tells of how his son-in-law rescued him at the risk of his own life. 'The boy was inclined to be extravagant,' he says, 'and that was why his father stopped his allowance, but as soon as he heard how he saved me from that ferocious wild man, he realized that there was something to the boy after all. That's why my son-in-law is a partner in his father's banking house.'"

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 3, 1913:

"This is rather an impossible story which will, nevertheless, be amusing to many. Harry Benham and Mignon Anderson play leads in this picture. Willie, losing out at poker and meeting with a rebuff from his father on matters of finance, takes the place of the wild man in the park at the summer hotel, thus winning his bride."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 6, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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