Volume II: Filmography

THEIR COUSIN FROM ENGLAND

British release title: THE ADVENTURES OF COUSIN ALGY

March 22, 1914 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,003 feet)

Character: "Anglo-American comedy"

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Arthur Bauer (Gray, a wealthy suburbanite), Lila Chester (Mrs. Gray, his wife), Lydia Mead (May, their mischievous daughter), Dorothy Jordan (Grace, just as mischievous), James Dunne (Jack, in love with May), Bill Noel (Bill, in love with Grace), Cyril Chadwick (Chapman, a young Englishman)

Note: Listed in error as The Cousin from England in several (but not all) schedules and a review (issue of March 28, 1914 in The Moving Picture World and in some schedules in Reel Life (March 7, 1914 issue, for example).

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 21, 1914:

"May and Grace Gray, daughters of Edgar Gray, a wealthy 'gentleman farmer' living in Westchester County near New York City, are much amused when they receive a letter from a young English cousin, in which the young man announces that he is coming to New York to hunt buffalo and to take a few pot shots at bally Indians. Having notified a score or more of their friends and acquaintances in the Westchester Country Club, the girls prepare to receive the young man in a manner befitting his expectations. Dressed as cowgirls they lasso the young man as he comes down the gangplank, and hurry him into an automobile. Once out in Westchester County, the excitement begins. Chapman is told by the girls that 'father has gone to hunt the Indians who killed mother, but will return presently.' On the way home, several decrepit cows and an old bull, with papier maché buffalo heads imposed upon them, are chased across the pastures in a thrilling 'buffalo hunt.' Chapman and the girls soon afterward meet some very bad cowboys who pretend to dislike the young Englishman's looks. As a matter of fact, the 'cowboys' are brokers' clerks and young college men home on vacation. The cowboys, however, come to the defense of the Gray home when it is attacked by 'Indians.' A desperate battle ensues, and smoke bombs make Chapman feel sorry that he ever left the steamship pier for the wild life of the 'frontier.' Eventually, of course, when Mr. and Mrs. Gray return home, Chapman discovers that he has been spoofed. Being a sensible young man he takes his discomfiture goodnaturedly."

REVIEW, The Bioscope, July 2, 1914:

"As an ornament to the drawing-room, Algy was probably a useful asset, but a series of faked adventures and an 'Indian attack' render his country visit somewhat of a bore."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 29, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 28, 1914:

"New fun has been found to furnish laughs in this farce, although the type of British burlesque has done service in any number of films. He comes to Lakewood, New Jersey [sic], to 'bag a buffalo' and sees something of the 'wild spots' on the world, and his two girl cousins dress up in wild West skirts to receive him with revolvers and '49 (sarsaparilla) red-eye. It is well handled and makes a very fair offering."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, March 25, 1914:

"The only question in this one-reel comedy is the degree of mirth which it will arouse with its varying audiences. That it is full of loud and lingering laughs for the whole of its length there is not a particle of doubt. That it is also well pictured, there is even less doubt. In that the actors take their parts with laughable distinction, there is the least doubt of all. Having therefore dispelled all doubts of any matter whatsoever from all minds concerned, let us turn to the arrival of the cousin from England, who is here to hunt the buffalo in the outskirts of New York City. The two young couples help him along in his mental aberration by dressing up as cowboys and cowgirls, and then take him to the wilds and leave him there with his .38 blanks to bag the game. Hark! Something approaches. Slowly he raises his gun. No, that is not a buffalo; it is a trolley car. However, patience has its rewards. Another noise is heard. This time his sights show an automobile. And so on. When the front of various kinds has progressed far enough the mother and father return, and then woe for the children who have thus spoofed a lord."

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