There's a clever set-up to this vehicle for silent film child star Baby Peggy and which co-stars a pre-stardom Clara Bow in a supporting role, "Helen's Babies." It doesn't surprise me that it's an adaptation of a novel, as written by a John Habberton, who is said to have based it on the adventures of his own sons. In the film, we have the surrogate writer of it within the film--in this case an Uncle Harry (as played by Edward Everett Horton, who'd have a long career, as opposed to the two stars here, as a character actor). It's a highly reflexive and novelistic device.
Although a bachelor writing about child rearing and, thus, not knowing what he's writing about, as far as parenting books are concerned, it's actually a good fiction strategy, of writing oneself into a dilemma that they're not initially sure how to resolve. And, that's what Uncle Harry has essentially done by writing the book that became his nieces, as they were raised on its prescripts. Their parents (his sister and her husband) are so trusting of this book that they decide a visit from Uncle Harry to be a perfect opportunity to scurry off for a vacation, leaving the girls in his charge and much to his surprise and grief. Mischief ensues.
It's a good bit of fun, too, with the exception of some dated ethnic humor. There's a black servant, "yessuhs" an' all, who runs away in sped-up motion as a scared black man trope, and, although the story would otherwise suggest Uncle Harry is watching the kids on his own, there's a mammy character with no lines. Additionally, Uncle Harry in one scene believes that gypsies stole the girls, although this is more of a knock on the character's prejudices than the film's, I suppose, but the Romani nomads still do nothing about two unaccompanied children chasing after a dog going through their camp.
Other than that, there are some humorous gags here, especially the little damsels winding up on railroad tracks as a train carrying their parents home approaches. One of the best Baby Peggy shorts I've seen, "Miles of Smiles" (1923), includes a similar joke of her being rescued from the tracks, although in that case she subsequently became the conductor of the child-sized train. Both titles play on a melodramatic trope of damsels being rescued from dastardly villains tying them to railroad tracks. As Frtizi of the Movies Silently website has made clear, however, it's a myth that this was a silent film cliché, as just about every silent film to exploit it did so parodically, as here. Also a parody, "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1913) may remain the most famous example. Indeed, the only straight dramatic use of the trope, and minus the being tied part, that I've seen thus far is from early cinema, the Edison one-reeler "The Train Wreckers" (1905).
When I first checked out some Baby Peggy movies back in 2018, when Peggy, subsequently known as Diana Serra Cary, had just turned 100 years of age, credited as the last surviving silent film star until her death in 2020, I was underwhelmed by pictures such as "Captain January" and "The Family Secret" (both 1924), and so I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the recent shorts I saw as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive tribute, including her dual roles in "Miles of Smiles," and by this tribute from the live streaming of the Cinecon Classic Film Festival, of a presentation of a recording of the theatrical performance they made back in 2018 with an introduction from Cary. The print of the film today, by the way, is via the Library of Congress and the Fondazione Cinetecta Italiana, a restoration combining a domestic and a foreign print of the picture. It doesn't look that great, at least via streaming, including some apparent bleaching, but is certainly watchable.
Most of all, it demonstrates how good a Baby Peggy vehicle could be when working with clever writing and capable supporting players like Horton and Bow. That it's not only Baby Peggy who can make an amusing, mugging face for close-ups makes a big difference. It's apparent why Horton was such a successful character actor, able to compliment yet not out-shine the stars of a film. And, it's as easy to see why Bow, in a smaller part here, would become such a flapper-era sensation later with films such as "Wings" and "It" (both 1927). Even with her limited close-ups here, her facial expressions are spot on. Odd to think that she's the rising star here, while Baby Peggy, pulling in an annual salary of $1.5 million, was at her stardom peak, becoming an extra by the 1930s before her retirement from the business soon thereafter, although she went on to advocate for the rights of child actors, her own fortunate having been squandered, as detailed in her memoir and the documentary "Baby Peggy, the Elephant in the Room" (2012). Perhaps, "Helen's Babies" was also her pinnacle film, but I'd be happy to see more of her oeuvre to know if that holds true, and, sadly, most of her films, as with most silent films in general, are now lost--another fortune squandered, if only for the most part.
