Child-star Baby Peggy is adorable and funny, per usual it seems, but "Captain January" is another one of those old-fashioned, mawkish melodramas that I find distasteful. In this one, Peggy plays the titular character adopted by an old lighthouse keeper five years ago after a shipwreck on a stormy night washes her ashore. Most of the drama is concerned with the lighthouse keeper, Daddy Judkins, in a continual panic over others trying to take her away from him. Indeed, it is similar to Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid," co-starring fellow child-star Jackie Coogan, except that this one extends the tear-jerker father-child separation crisis to lesser effect. If this is your cup of tea, however, there is some picturesque seashore photography, its runtime is appreciably brief, and Baby Peggy is charming. There are a few comedic moments, too, including a cursing parrot.
On the other hand, co-stars Hobart Bosworth as the sentimental and sickly Judkins and a wasted Irene Rich surely did better work elsewhere (although Bosworth seems to have specialized in fatherly roles by this time, Rich is far more appealing in "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1925)). As available today, the cutting is rather choppy, but that's to be expected and forgivable. The habit of telling instead of showing is not, though, including never developing the history of hatred between Judkins and the villainous Maxwell, and the abrupt ending seems tacked-on. Yet, it's no wonder that this was later remade as a vehicle for another kid actor, Shirley Temple.
On the other hand, co-stars Hobart Bosworth as the sentimental and sickly Judkins and a wasted Irene Rich surely did better work elsewhere (although Bosworth seems to have specialized in fatherly roles by this time, Rich is far more appealing in "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1925)). As available today, the cutting is rather choppy, but that's to be expected and forgivable. The habit of telling instead of showing is not, though, including never developing the history of hatred between Judkins and the villainous Maxwell, and the abrupt ending seems tacked-on. Yet, it's no wonder that this was later remade as a vehicle for another kid actor, Shirley Temple.