Unknown director | Hilda Wakes / 1913

a second mrs. woods

by Douglas Messerli

 

Unknown (screenwriter and director) Hilda Wakes / 1913 || lost film

 

John Woods (William Bailey) is asked by his wife (Beverly Bayne) to hire a new cook. By mistake, instead of seeking out the local employment agency, John enters a matrimonial agency, whose manager is, according to one critic of the day, “a sissy instead of a human being.” The nelly manager presents Hilda (Eleanor Blanchard), whom Woods, paying the fee, believes he has now hired, taking his new cook home with him, Hilda presuming that she will soon be married to the handsome gentleman.

     Business takes John to church, whereupon Hilda naturally follows.

     Returning home Mrs. Woods is quite disturbed to see Hilda sitting at the dinner table with her husband. Evidently John’s explanation is quite most remarkable aspect about this little movie, but we have no record of what that might have consisted of. 

      The only reason this 11-minute film appears here is that unnamed critic suggests that a great part of the film’s humor (to his disgust) derives from the effeminate matchmaker, a pansy-like role which would be become popular again in the early 1930s.

 

Los Angeles, September 30, 2022