Michael McShane, Matchmaker

Much credit is due Larry Trimble, this picture's author, for the pleasing, human situation that it so freshly presents. But, fine as the situation is, there is something in it finer still, and it is nothing else that the love making of Danny O'Toole, bashful laddie- buck that he is, to pretty Colleen O'Brian. Of course, Larry Trimble saw it all in the picture; but how could he have found a way to make us see it, except in this that he was also the picture's producer. The pig in a poke that Danny was carrying was a bit in the laddie's way. He wants to be holdin' out his arms too, but doesn't dare. Then the pig escapes and Danny and the girl have to chase it, giving more good fun to the audience. All this is as natural and unconstrained as it can be. John Bunny plays the picture's central character, Michael McShane, a donkey cart peddler, who teaches Danny how to make love successfully. This character is very skillfully drawn and made perfectly consistent; but Michael shows himself to us through the workings of his mind and interests the intellect rather than directly the imagination. It is the man's humor and his shrewdness, finding in Bunny's face and gestures, full of dealings with the world, absolutely consistent expression, that we see, and that strongly attract us. The firmness with which this character is established and the consistent way in which it is used add much to the picture's strength. We know him thoroughly from his way in making a trade before Danny thinks of going to him for advice. We think it one of the best things Bunny has done. Producer Trimble's whole method in making the offering is worth high praise. It is thoroughly Irish in its characters, its scenes and its action. It was photographed in an Irish village and we have the thatched cottages, mud puddles, pigs, dogs and all Irish. Mabelle Lumley (Colleen O'Brian) is lovely as a lassie just budding into womanhood. Charles Cox's Danny is perfect. Beatrice Grovner, as Colleen's mother, and James Pryor, as her father, fill their parts in perfect satisfaction. A true, spontaneous comedy and as dandy a picture as warmed the heart of an audience. - The Moving Picture World, November 16, 1912