The Innocence of Lizette

While stating that Mary Miles Minter appears to advantage in the production in question, it is only fair to add that in a story of different theme and better construction, this clever and beautiful little actress would have appeared to much greater advantage. The production as it stands reflects a clumsy effort at making a child's picture. There are many children employed in the making of the picture, and there are scenes of individual interest to children, but unfortunately the plot of the story develops situations which, under their present subtitles, are apt to jar the sensibilities of a refined audience, and are not at all commendable for child audiences. The story, which it is very evident has been built around the little star, is badly constructed and presents a series of incidents in the life of a child some of which me pathetic, and some of which are intended to be amusing. As the story runs, a little girl whose grandfather and only living relative dies, leaving her in the care of Granny Page, the landlady, becomes a helper at the news stand of Granny's son and is later adopted by a widower whose life she has brightened by personally delivering his paper each morning. The unpleasant element of the story, without which a charming production might have been the result, occurs when Lizette, finding a baby on the doorstep of her foster father's home after having been absent at Granny's for a couple of months on a visit, states that the child is hers, and pictures the handsomest young man she knows as its father. Her foster father approaches the young man in a rage, demands that he marry the girl, hauls him away to his house and faces him with a minister to perform the ceremony. The actual marriage of the pair is prevented by the arrival on the scene of the mother of the baby. If the young man had been left out of the question, and the producer had satisfied himself with the child's persistence in the statement that the baby had been sent to her from heaven, the story's climax would have been both pleasing and amusing. – The Moving Picture World, January 20, 1917

Mary Miles Minter's grandfather has just died. She is living with her landlady, Eugenie Forde, and and Miss Forde's grandson, Eugene Forde, helping out at their news stand, where rich banker Harvey Clark buys his newspaper. He is sad because his wife and daughter have died. Miss Minter is honestly kind to him, so he asks her to come live at his home.

Blink.

After a while of perfectly innocent relationship, Mr. Clark has to go on a business trip. Miss Minter goes back to her old place, despite the luxurious home with servants and a governess to educate her she has come to enjoy. On the evening of Mr. Clark's return, Miss Minter comes back, finds a baby left on the doorstep by a mother hoping for some charity. Because Miss Minter has been told that babies come from Heaven, she announces this is her baby, to the consternation of the staff.

Blink again.

Fourteen-year-old Mary is an angelically beautiful young woman in this film, and her character is apparently an idiot. This is the sort of thing that passed for a children's movie in 1916, I suppose. Despite the idiotic plot, I enjoyed this short feature a good deal.

Blink a third time.

By the way, despite their names, Eugene Forde and Eugenie Forde were not related.

Beat head against a wall.