Cheerful Givers

Cheerful Givers
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Directed by	Paul Powell
Written by	Mary H. O'Connor^[1]
Starring	Bessie Love Kenneth Harlan
Cinematography	John W. Leezer^[2]
Production company	Fine Arts Film Company
Distributed by	Triangle Film Corporation
Release date	April 15, 1917 (1917-04-15) (U.S.)^[3]
Running time	5 reels^[4]
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

Cheerful Givers is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama film produced by the Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation.^[1] The film stars Bessie Love and Kenneth Harlan.^[5]

The film is presumed lost.

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Plot

In order to save her father's orphanage, Judy (Love) answers a request to have the "eldest boy" work in the kitchen of a rich, miserly woman. She disguises herself as a boy, and, there, she crosses paths with the woman's son Horace (Harlan), whom she mistrusts, but who realizes that she is a girl and who falls in love with her. Judy thwarts the son's plans to steal from his mother's safe. The son realizes his error, and Judy falls in love with him.^[3]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Cast

Bessie Love as Judy
Kenneth Harlan as Horace Gray
Josephine Crowell as Mrs. Harriet Gray
Spottiswoode Aitken as Rev. John Deady
Bessie Buskirk as Lizzie Vance
Pauline Starke as Abigail Deady
Winifred Westover as Estella
Loyola O'Connor as Mrs. Parker
William H. Brown as Bob, Factotum of Orphanage
Violet Radcliffe as Orphan
Beulah Burns as Orphan
George Stone as Orphan
'Baby' Carmen De Rue as Orphan
Francis Carpenter as Orphan
Ninon Fovieri as Orphan
Lloyd Perl as Orphan
Violet Wilkey as Oldest Orphan Girl (uncredited)^[3]^[6]

Reception

The film was generally well-received, called an "adroit comedy" and "perfectly done",^[10] and it had a wide appeal.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] Some reviewers deemed the film "too slow."^[15]

It was noted that, although her performance was strong,^[16] Bessie Love was not yet fully a box office draw throughout the country.^[17]^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b "Varying Themes in Four Triangle Presentations". Motion Picture News. Vol. 15, no. 15. p. 2332.
^ Love, Bessie (1977). From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love. London: Elm Tree Books. p. 149. OCLC 734075937.
^ ^a ^b ^c L.H. (April 21, 1917). "Films Reviewed". The Billboard. p. 60.
^ Kansas State Board of Review (1917). Complete List of Motion Picture Films. p. 14.
^ Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1988). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films 1911–1920. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-520-06301-3.
^ ^a ^b Milne, Peter (April 28, 1917). "Screen Examinations". Motion Picture News. Vol. 15, no. 17. p. 2690.
^ "Pictures and Everything That Appertains Thereto". The Billboard. April 7, 1917. p. 62.
^ Essex, Bert D. (May 1917). "The Silent Trend". The Photo-Play Journal. Vol. 2, no. 1. p. 26.
^ Horak, Laura (February 26, 2016). Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908–1934. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-7484-4.
^ Johnson, Julian (July 1917). "The Shadow Stage". Photoplay Magazine. Vol. 12, no. 2. pp. 86–87.
^ Whitman, M.H. (September 15, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 18, no. 11. p. 542.
^ Manley, P.F. (September 29, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 18, no. 13. p. 643.
^ Trinz, S. (May 5, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 17, no. 18. p. 920.
^ Trinz, Edward (May 19, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 17, no. 20. p. 1028.
^ Miles, A.N. (March 9, 1918). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 19, no. 10. p. 450.
^ "At the Oak Park Theater". Forest Leaves. Vol. 11, no. 16. April 20, 1917. p. 4.
^ Guthrie, George B. (July 14, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 18, no. 2. p. 61.
^ Miller, Harry (May 12, 1917). "What the Picture Did for Me". Motography. Vol. 17, no. 19. p. 977.