Skinner's Dress Suit

Juvenile actor Bryant Washburn, who advanced his career with an impressive performance in "The Blindness of Virtue" (1915), essayed young adult roles with increasing popularity. The late "teens" were a peak, but Washburn endured through the 1940s. Although the whereabouts of "Skinner's Dress Suit" is presently unknown, we know it was a success. There were two sequels, "Skinner's Bubble" (1917) and "Skinner's Baby" (1917), followed by two 1920s films (without Mr. Washburn). "William Skinner" is from a series of stories by Henry Irving Dodge. Washburn's three Essanay "Skinner" productions were directed by Harry Beaumont, the off-screen husband of his on-screen wife, Hazel Daly (as Honey Skinner).

In a storyline which should presently recognizable as a situation comedy staple, Washburn is too timid to ask boss James C. Carroll (as McLaughlin) for a promotion, or raise in salary. He makes only $40 a week. With encouragement from Ms. Daly, "Skinner" summons up the nerve to request the raise, but gets cold feet during the confrontation. Unable to admit his failure, Washburn buys "Skinner's Dress Suit" at the behest of his celebratory wife. Although he can't afford the suit, it helps him advance at work, and ends up paying for itself. In "Photoplay" (May 1917), reviewer Julian Johnson called the film "superlative fun-making" for Washburn, with Daly "charming," and good support from Mr. Dunkinson, and Mr. Carroll.

****** Skinner's Dress Suit (2/6/17) Harry Beaumont ~ Bryant Washburn, Hazel Daly, Harry Dunkinson, James C. Carroll

Henry Irving Dodge's story, which made hundreds of thousands of readers of the Saturday Evening Post purr with pleased satisfaction and indulge in hearty laughter of the most approved type, has been done in moving pictures by Essanay. The result is a success not only in moving picture art, but one that is bound to bring to the faces of exhibitors who book the subject that particular smile which only healthy box office receipts can create. It is a pleasing task to review "Skinner's Dress Suit." It has a beneficent atmosphere throughout. When one is not smiling inwardly or laughing outwardly at the situations, his heart is stirred by some trait of character that shows the best in human nature. The worst never comes to life in these films, yet they reveal only what we feel might have occurred in ordinary, everyday business life. I believe everyone who sees "Skinner's Dress Suit" will agree with me that the subtitles are right to the point, crisp and catchy, and that Charles J. McQuirk, who made the adaptation, has set a pattern that might well be followed by others who engage in the very important work of writing subtitles. Director Harry Beaumont has told the story perfectly. I cannot recall a spot where I might have suggested a change. No gaps that might leave the spectator in doubt for a moment are observable. In the matter of settings Mr. Beaumont has exercised his customary painstaking care. In my opinion Bryant Washburn has done his finest work before the camera in the role of Skinner. Who can forbear to laugh at the changing expression on the cashier's face while on the morning train on his way to the city, as his courage gradually sinks from the point of "demanding" a raise of salary from his employers to "asking," and finally to "suggesting." And when the dreaded interview with the senior member of the firm takes place, and we watch the unconscious tap, tap, tap of the nervous cashier's shoe on the foot of the boss, we feel like exploding when worm-like he wriggles out the words: "I came in to see how you felt about giving me a raise." Or in that interview afterward with his wife "Honey," as he endearingly calls her, when he has made up his mind to tell her that he has got a raise, and to draw on his small bank account for the extra money that she intends to spend, how brutally one inclines to laughter as he tells the lie seemingly with as great physical pain as if he were swallowing a sword. Then he looks up at a portrait of George Washington on the wall and winks, and strange to say the revered George winks back in commiseration. Miss Hazel Daly's "Honey" is a very worthy opposite to Mr. Washburn's "Skinner." It is the first opportunity I have had to see this woman in moving pictures, and I venture to state that she will share everywhere in the honors of the picture's star. Harry Dunkinson is seen to advantage in the strong character part of Willard Jackson, whom Skinner succeeds in bringing back to the firm of McLaughlin & Perkins. The members of the firm are well represented by James C. Carrol and U.K. Houpt, while the parts of Mrs. J. Smith Crawford (a leader in the social set that finally takes Skinner into its exclusive favor). Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. McLaughlin are ably portrayed by Florence Oberle, Frances Raymond and Marion Skinner. – The Moving Picture World, February 17, 1917