This was the first of several Anglo-Dutch co-productions made between 1919 and 1922 directed by Maurits Binger (with B. E. Doxat-Pratt oc Frank Richardson). Fate's Plaything 1920, Laughter and Tears and The Black Tulip, both 1921 and Circus Jim 1922 certainly all survive and there may yet be more to come.....
This film, although it has a starry adult Dutch cast inc Annis Bos, Lola Cornero and Adelqui Migliar is really all built around the child star Renee Spiljer and has the air of being made to play well in the US market (the writer, Eleanor Morse Savi was from Massachusetts and appeared also to have written the scenario for the film).
It is a similar story in many ways to Little Lord Fauntleroy (first filmed in the UK in 1914). The wife (Annie Bos) of the younger son (Migliar) is unacceptable to the aristocratic family because she is an actress (and, as he is a feckless good-for-nothing he ends up abandoning everybody and going off to become a make a man of himself by becoming a mountie in Canada (so, thankfully, we don't see too much of him). The family decides to adopt the child and the mother, not a successful actress at this stage) hsa no choice but to agree for the good of the child. The cutesy child (along with cutesy dog which looks a bit like something that's fallen off the end of a chimneysweeps' brush - the pair eat, sleep and pray together!) then proceeds to charm the family, easily wining the heart of the father and the elder son but having a bit more of an effort to win over the elder son's wife (a good performance by Cornero).
There is no real tension or conflict anywhere in sight -just little Renee spreading sweetness and light wherever she goes - and the eventual happy end is in view from very early on - Bos has meanwhile become a star and Migliar a man - but it is a pleasant enough film and Spiljar does a good job. Although the child is described as "artless" several times in the film, she is absolutely no such thing and one point of interest is actually the way she is shown to have inherited her mother's acting instincts and uses her histrionic skills as the key to winning over the family. A nice little twist on the otherwise very familiar "anti-theatre prejudice" theme.
Spiljat, although she and sister Marie appeared in a handful of other films, never made it as a star and, as for the dog, it was probably reclaimed by the chimneysweep.
This film, although it has a starry adult Dutch cast inc Annis Bos, Lola Cornero and Adelqui Migliar is really all built around the child star Renee Spiljer and has the air of being made to play well in the US market (the writer, Eleanor Morse Savi was from Massachusetts and appeared also to have written the scenario for the film).
It is a similar story in many ways to Little Lord Fauntleroy (first filmed in the UK in 1914). The wife (Annie Bos) of the younger son (Migliar) is unacceptable to the aristocratic family because she is an actress (and, as he is a feckless good-for-nothing he ends up abandoning everybody and going off to become a make a man of himself by becoming a mountie in Canada (so, thankfully, we don't see too much of him). The family decides to adopt the child and the mother, not a successful actress at this stage) hsa no choice but to agree for the good of the child. The cutesy child (along with cutesy dog which looks a bit like something that's fallen off the end of a chimneysweeps' brush - the pair eat, sleep and pray together!) then proceeds to charm the family, easily wining the heart of the father and the elder son but having a bit more of an effort to win over the elder son's wife (a good performance by Cornero).
There is no real tension or conflict anywhere in sight -just little Renee spreading sweetness and light wherever she goes - and the eventual happy end is in view from very early on - Bos has meanwhile become a star and Migliar a man - but it is a pleasant enough film and Spiljar does a good job. Although the child is described as "artless" several times in the film, she is absolutely no such thing and one point of interest is actually the way she is shown to have inherited her mother's acting instincts and uses her histrionic skills as the key to winning over the family. A nice little twist on the otherwise very familiar "anti-theatre prejudice" theme.
Spiljat, although she and sister Marie appeared in a handful of other films, never made it as a star and, as for the dog, it was probably reclaimed by the chimneysweep.
