Carmen, Jr.

Just about the last silent movie star still alive today, (December of 2012) is "Baby Peggy" Montgomery. Her career resembled that of Shirley Temple a dozen years later -- indeed, at least one of her features, "Captain January", was remade with Miss Temple in the lead.

Before she went into features, she had a career in short subjects. However, while some of the shorts that Miss Temple were in, directed by Charles Lamont, whiff of a sexuality that disturbs me -- call it post-Millennial hypersensitivity if you will -- Baby Peggy was always a child playing at being an adult. In this one she dances a tango -- and passes out from exertion; she fights a bull in the bull ring -- and the bull is clearly an adult in costume. The result is a charming short subject that made me chuckle.

A few decades ago, I remember reading a book by Baby Peggy Montgomery, actually by this time she called herself Diana Serra Cary, about her life as a child star. So this is the first time I watched something she appeared in on YouTube. While the intertitles were in a language from a Scandinavian country, I managed to understand what was going on since this seems to be a parody of the opera Carmen. This toddler dresses in the period dress and is doing the tango...and getting dizzy doing so! Then there's a dream sequence in which she's being confronted by a "bull". Notice I put the word in quotation marks since obviously it's actually someone in a costume. I'll just now say Carmen, Jr. Was quite a cute and amusing short and leave it at that.

Carmen, Jr. (1923)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly charming take-off on the Carmen story has Baby Peggy playing a Senorita in Mexico who first must find a man to take care of her and then she finds herself fighting a bull. If you take CARMEN, JR. too serious then you're probably going to be offended by some of the stuff you see. This is especially true during the first half of the short when Baby Peggy is seen dressed as an adult and acting rather sexual as she wants to find a man. I'm sure this here was meant to be innocent and this type of thing (children playing adult) happened throughout this period but it doesn't sit too well today. I thought the rest of the film was pretty charming including the finale with Baby Peggy having to fight the bull. This led to a couple funny sequences including a rather violent one where the young child (actually a dummy) gets thrown around. The highlight of the film happens in the first half when Peggy is spinning around dancing and it's clear that she gets dizzy and starts staggering all over the place. If you watch the extras you can tell that several have smiles on their faces watching her. This "real" moment is easily the highlight.

It's hard to take "Carmen, Jr." very seriously--mostly because the film really didn't take itself all that seriously. And, at the time it debuted, it was clearly a light-weight comedy (which it remains today).

The film begins with Carmen, Jr. (Baby Peggy) showing off her strength in Spain--by beating up all the little boys and knocking men off their feet. It seems that she is NOT a demure little lady and thinks this is how to treat the opposite sex. She is NOT very lady-like! In the next act, you see Baby Peggy going into the bullring where she fights what is CLEARLY a guy in a bull costume. It's all very silly...and a bit dumb. But, because Peggy is so charming and cute, you can't help but enjoy the film no matter how goofy it all becomes. A strange but watchable little curio with a few decent moments.