Twin Kiddies (restored by La Cinémathèque française)

Twin Kiddies. Daniel Gilfether (the big boss William Van Loan), Marie Osborne (in the twin role of Bessie / Fay), and Henry King (the leader of the fighting labour).

Director: Henry King. Year: 1916. Country: USA. Scen.: Calder Johnstone. F.: William Beckway. Int.: Marie Osborne (Bessie Hunt / Fay Van Loan), Henry King (Jasper Hunt), Ruth Lackaye (Mrs. Flannigan), Daniel Gilfether (William Van Loan), R. Henry Grey (Baxter Van Loan), Loretta Beecker (Beatrice Van Loan), Edward Jobson (Spencer), Mignon Le Brun (la governante). Prod.: Balboa Amusement Company. 35 mm. D.: 54’. Col. (Desmet).
    French intertitles.
    Maud Nelissen at the digital piano.
    Copy from La Cinémathèque française.
    Restored by La Cinémathèque française from the original negatives. The tinting was reproduced using the Desmet coloration process. The negative has been digitised in 2K, the intertitles have been reconstructed from a French copy of the same period held by Cinémathèque de Toulouse.
    Soul and Craft: A Portrait of Henry King.
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, with e-subtitles in Italian and English, 24 June 2019.

Thierry Lemoine (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "In March 1916, Pathé released a short feature entitled Little Mary Sunshine, starring a four-year-old Marie Osborne. This was one of the first features ever directed by King and it was so successful that Pathé asked the original production company, Balboa, for five more features with the same child wonder. All were produced during the second half of 1916, and only three of them survive today – one being Twin Kiddies, which shows the amazing progress King had made since the first film in the series. Of course, the story is thin, the ending quite abrupt, and the opening sequences rather long."

"Yet, the direction is much more subtle, alternating between shots of different size, suggesting that King was mastering the art of composition. Even at the beginning of the film there is a scene (when Fay, played by Osborne, runs towards the camera) which that is filmed in deep focus. Later, a beautiful view of a peaceful valley predicts King’s classic silent Tol’able David (1921) while throughout the film, like muchas in many of King’s later works – both silent and sound – the camera returns to lush views of outdoor spaces and landscapes."

"One other sign of King’s rapid improvement is the editing, which interlaces parallel actions, without an excess of transitions, as it was the case in the first feature. Furthermore, the acting is natural, something which that can’t be seen in many films of 1916. Marie remains at the centre of the film, with a climax in which using double exposure is used. However, Marie Osborne’s stardom was short-lived and virtually ended in 1919. Years later, King gave her a small role in Carolina (1934), and then Osborne, now a young woman, became the stand-in for Ginger Rogers and Betty Hutton. Later, she worked in the costume department of films such as Cleopatra (1963) and The Godfather: Part II (1974). When she died in 2010, she was 99." Thierry Lemoine

AA: According to the Internet Movie Database, Henry King acted in 117 films, all save one between 1913–1920. He directed 61 silent films (the number depending on how one counts the Who Pays? series, here entered as one film), most of which are lost. Twin Kiddies is a new restoration of a very early Henry King movie. It was not shown in the silent Henry King retrospective in Pordenone in 1995.

The story belongs to the tradition best-known in Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper (1881). Henry King shows talent as a director of children, in this case, Marie Osborne in the twin role as the rich girl and the poor girl. It is interesting to notice him directing a story of social awareness and class struggle at this early date.  But on the whole the film feels uninspired. Henry King as an actor, here and otherwise, is solid and reliable but not very memorable.

A valuable restoration by Thierry Lemoine at La Cinémathèque française. Sepia toning looks great. Desmet tinting obscures the film.


MOVING PICTURE WORLD SYNOPSIS FROM IMDB:

"No one seems to understand or love Fay, the little spoiled granddaughter of William Van Loan, a hard-hearted capitalist, but the old family butler, who tells her fairy stories.

"In Powhatan, a mining town controlled by Van Loan, Bessie, a sweet motherless child of Jasper Hunt, a mine foreman, lives with their housekeeper, Mrs. Flannigan. The mining company raises the price of food stuffs at the only store; the men resent this, and failing to get increased pay, strike.

"Van Loan refuses to yield and decides to use scab labor. Scenes of violence follow and, compelled to go to Powhatan, Van Loan takes Fay with him. Fay meets and plays with Bessie and for fun they change dresses." 

"Separated, the unusual likeness deceives the Van Loan governess, who supposes Bessie to be Fay and whisks her away. Mrs. Flannigan finds and takes Fay, sick from exposure, to the Hunt home. Business hurriedly recalls Van Loan and mistaken for a changed Fay, Bessie revolutionizes the Van Loan household by her sweetness."

"Hunt, the real leader of the striking men, is summoned to meet Van Loan. During the unsuccessful arbitration meeting, Bessie comes in to bid her "grandfather" good night and, seeing her father, rushes to his arms. Hunt, busy with the strike, supposes her to be ill at home."

"They are all dumbfounded. Bessie tells them how she and Fay changed clothes. Looking up the family trees, the likeness of the "twin" kiddies is explained, and, completely won over, Van Loan yields to the men and Hunt is made mine superintendent. Years of dread follow, and just as a report of the other's death reaches him, his foe appears, immensely wealthy and wreaks the vengeance in a spectacular manner."

— Moving Picture World synopsis