I was thrilled to find this movie, along with two other of Baby Peggy's films: "Family Secret" and "Helen's Babies", available from silent film video dealers. Baby Peggy is one of the most adorable child actresses of all times. She is on a heavenly cloud inhabited only by Margaret O'Brien and Virginia Lee Corbin. For utter adorability, only Margaret O'Brien in "Meet Me in St. Louis" is comparable. The stills of Baby Peggy that one finds on auction sites do no justice to this little girl's ability to make one laugh and cry at the same moment. Her smile is stellar. Her pain palatable. When she cuddles with Judkins, you can almost feel her in your lap! It a strange experience, a very rare ability for any actress. No wonder Baby Peggy was a box office sensation and the world's first five-year-old self-made millionaire.
Hobart Bosworth's performance as Jerimiah Judkins, the lighthouse keeper who finds Baby Peggy washed up on shore during a storm, is also infectious, indescribable and delicious. I'm with him on this one! Anyone takes Baby Peggy away from Judkins will have to deal with me and the rest of you viewers as well. Down with busybodies and despicable social workers!
Captain January is from a script written for Baby Peggy. Later, when her fortune had been robbed by her father's business manager, and the studios no longer wanted her and the Montegomery's were broke, her father sold her half-ownership of the script for $500 to Shirley Temple's studio. In my opinion this was an ignominious rip-off, and Shirley's remake wasn't nearly as good.
I love this movie.
Hobart Bosworth's performance as Jerimiah Judkins, the lighthouse keeper who finds Baby Peggy washed up on shore during a storm, is also infectious, indescribable and delicious. I'm with him on this one! Anyone takes Baby Peggy away from Judkins will have to deal with me and the rest of you viewers as well. Down with busybodies and despicable social workers!
Captain January is from a script written for Baby Peggy. Later, when her fortune had been robbed by her father's business manager, and the studios no longer wanted her and the Montegomery's were broke, her father sold her half-ownership of the script for $500 to Shirley Temple's studio. In my opinion this was an ignominious rip-off, and Shirley's remake wasn't nearly as good.
I love this movie.