Volume II: Filmography

 

BEAUTY IN THE SEASHELL

 

October 19, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,014 feet)

Character: Comedy

Director: Carl L. Gregory

Cameraman: Carl L. Gregory

Location: Cape May, New Jersey

Cast: Harry Benham, Florence LaBadie, Ethyle Cooke

Note: This film was the third of the Cape May productions. The group of films included the following: Louie, the Life Saver (October 7, 1913), A Deep Sea Liar (October 12, 1913), Beauty in the Seashell (October 19, 1913), The Mystery of the Haunted Hotel (October 21, 1913), The Water Cure (November 2, 1913), and Little Brother (November 7, 1913).

 

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, October 18, 1913:

"She appears from her shell merely to make trouble for the man with the watchful sweetheart. For Beauty embraced the man! In the end, the sweetheart discovered that her beau was in no way responsible. Made at Cape May by the now-famous Thanhouser Cape May Company, this 'By-the-Sea' story is a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

 

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, October 25, 1913:

"Whenever the clerk heard his chums tell of the joys of the sea shore, he smiled mysteriously, knowing that none of them could match his experiences. His fiancée was at Cape May, and there he went to spend a few days. The very first morning she went to see her dressmaker and remained so long that in pity she told him to go to the beach and enjoy himself until she arrived. Sometime later she appeared, and was shocked to find him in the embrace of a beautiful young woman, a stranger to her. His explanation that she had 'come out of a sea shell' seemed to lack plausibility, but he insisted that it was true. Later, the young woman's conduct proved the truth to the strange story, and the girl and her sweetheart had all kinds of adventures in trying to escape her. She followed them when they went in bathing, she was on hand when they went sailing and fishing. The young man was helpless, and did not have any idea how matters could be remedied. Fortunately, he had a resourceful woman in the girl of his choice and she found a way to dispose of the unwelcome stranger, who, despite her youthful appearance, boasted that she was more than 4,000 years old, and was hardly the kind of a woman that a matter-of-fact young clerk would choose for his bride."

 

REVIEW, The Bioscope, January 8, 1914:

"This is not, as one might imagine, an educative demonstration of the curiosities of marine natural history, but a warning to any engaged young man who takes a more than usual interest in the fate of a mischievous young fairy who for her pranks has been condemned to perpetual imprisonment in a shell. The young man finds the shell while waiting on the beach for his sweetheart, who is spending three or four hours with her dressmaker, and finding it contains a fairy of more than ordinary beauty, he is prevailed on to effect her liberation by kissing the shell. On emerging she returns the kiss with such lavish interest that the other girl, on her arrival, naturally expresses some annoyance. The lovers try to evade her by joining the bathers, and even by taking a boat out to sea, but they cannot shake off the unwelcome intruder, for the lady from the sea can swim like a fish and is impregnable even to such obvious hints as the blade of an oar applied to the top of her pretty little head. She is eventually beguiled back into her shell by a similar device to that practised by the Fisherman in the Arabian Nights story, and the girl makes matters certain by hurling the shell well out to sea. It is a story of quaint fancy, and is brightly played by three very attractive young people; some animated scenes on the beach of a popular American seaside resort and some fine studies of the surf complete a very attractive film."

 

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 25, 1913:

"A fairy story of rather slight interest, in which the young hero kisses a sea shell, thus breaking the wicked magician's spell and releasing a beautiful young maiden. She interferes with his love affair, however, and he and his sweetheart are glad to get the fairy back into the shell again. Quite a pleasing little novelty."

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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.