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Out for Mischief
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 960 feet
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or William F. Haddock?
Cast: Francis Ford [the father], Richard Storey [his son], Edith Storey [the big sister]
Méliès Star-Film [American] production; distributed by Méliès Star-Film [American]. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. Cinematography by William Paley. / Released 13 October 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [The Film Index, 15 October 1910, page ?] In this picture we enjoy a rare treat when two youngsters who start out on a campaign of childish pranks appear upon the scene with a couple of cans of paint and a brush and make up their minds to do things and put a little life and color into them. They enter the dining-room and show their artistic skill by putting a mustache and goatee on grandma’s portrait. Then they saunter out into the garden and paint the sweat-bands of the hats of two visitors; then, in search of other fields to conquer, they transform the baby . . . to the astonishment of the nurse and her “feller” the “cop.” Hiding behind the garden bench on which their big sister and her beau are seated, they watch their chance to exercise their sense of the humorous and get it just as the two lovers are about to kiss by placing a piece of sticky fly-paper between the impending smack, and the lovers are immediately stuck on each other and their lips become glued together. The boys put frogs in the soup, and when the two visitors with the painted sweat-bands come to dine, the host and hostess are astonished to see black streaks encircling their foreheads. They are equally surprised and shocked when they behold the portrait of grandmother with whiskers, have a good laugh, and sit down to dine. The hostess begins to serve the soup and stops with a scream as the frogs appear in view. The housemaid tells them that their children are culprits, and it is not long before they are captured and sent to their rooms, but not for long. They soon escape and proceed to get square with the maid by starting a blaze of papers in front of the door of her bedroom, where she is making ready for bed, and she is very much disturbed, rushing out into the hall minus her wig, false teeth and plumbers. The kids run into the dining-room and hide under the table, where they are discovered and soundly trounced by their infuriated parents to the great delight of the guests.
Reviews: [The Film Index, 8 October 1910, page ?] Just kids — two ordinary, every-day, healthy American kids — are the principal actors in Melies’ coming comedy, Out for Mischief. They are not particularly bad youngsters, nor are they what are ordinarily termed model children, but they have the attribute so characteristic of the American child — pent up energy that expends itself in the perpetration of mischievous pranks. At the home of their parents were are visitors. Naturally this is the time the youngsters get busy, for it is the time they are least liable to be reprimanded . . . At the supper table comes the climax and with it the exposure, for in the soup is found mice and frogs. There is no longer any doubt as to the identity of the mischief makers, who both receive servers spankings from both parents and guests. But after all, they had boards underneath their clothing and father never spoke truer than when he said, “this hurts me more than it does you, my children.”
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Children - Punishment: Spanking
Listing updated: 7 August 2023.
References: Thompson-Star pp. 133-134, 229 : ClasIm-226 p. 54 : Website-AFI.
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