''Bab's Matinee Idol'' is a 1917 American silent

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film, based on the

Mary Roberts Rinehart Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie.Keating, H.R.F., ''The Bedside Companion to Crime''. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989, p. 170. Rinehart published her fi ...

novel Bab: a Sub-Deb, produced by

Famous Players–Lasky The Famous Players–Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Companyoriginally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Playsan ...

, and directed by

J. Searle Dawley James Searle Dawley (October 4, 1877 – March 30, 1949) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor, and playwright. Between 1907 and the mid-1920s, while working for Edison, Rex Motion Picture Company, Famous Playe ...

. This was the final film in the trilogy of ''Babs'' films that starred

Marguerite Clark Helen Marguerite Clark (February 22, 1883 – September 25, 1940) was an American theatre, stage and silent film actress. As a movie actress, at one time Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity. With a few Snow White (1916 film) ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine, Bab (Clark) is infatuated with Adrian (Steele), an actor, and cuts his picture out of a newspaper and worships it. An epidemic of

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

breaks out and Bab is sent home from boarding school. A few days later Bab learns that the play with her idol is in town, so she borrows money to see a performance with her hero. She writes him a note, and he invites her into his dressing room. She learns that unless the show gets more publicity, it will close. She arranges with budding publicist Carter Brooks (Barrie) and her father (Losee) for Adrian to apply for work at her father's ammunition factory, and to be thrown out and the story to get into the newspapers. However, Page Beresford (Chadwick), who is after Bab's sister Leila's (Greene) hand (and fortune), arrives at the factory to place an order for shells and, mistaken for Adrian, gets thrown out. When the real Adrian applies for work, he is hired and not allowed to leave, and misses the matinee performance. His irate wife, searching for Adrian, soon puts matters right. Bab succumbs to the measles and the revelation that Adrian is married completely shatters her thoughts of romance for the time being.

Cast

as Bab Archibald * Helen Greene as Leila Archibald * Isabel O'Madigan as Mrs. Archibald *

Frank Losee Frank Losee (June 12, 1856 – November 14, 1937) was an American stage and screen actor. A veteran of the Broadway stage he began in silent films in 1915. Often he played the father of Mary Pickford, Pauline Frederick and Marguerite Clark. C ...

as Mr. Archibald *

Nigel Barrie Nigel Barrie (5 February 1889, in Calcutta, British India – 8 October 1971, in South Africa) was an Indian-born British actor. Biography Barrie's background as a dancer and actor on legitimate stages and in vaudeville in both Great Britain an ...

as Carter Brooks * William Hinckley *

Cyril Chadwick Cyril Chadwick (11 June 1879 – 3 November 1955) was an English actor of the silent era. He appeared in 70 films between 1913 and 1938. He was born in Kensington, London. Partial filmography * ''Doc'' (1914) - Eastman * '' Mrs. Black Is ...

as Honorable Page Beresford * Leone Morgan as Jane Raleigh *

Vernon Steele Vernon Steele (born Arturo Romeo Antonietti; 18 September 1882 – 23 July 1955) was a Chilean-born British actor known for his appearances on the Broadway stage and in American films. He often played patrician young men in silent films. Steele ...

as Adrian Egleston * George Odell as The Butler *

Daisy Belmore Daisy Belmore (30 June 1874 – 12 December 1954) was an English stage and film actress. Born in England, Belmore moved to the United States in 1910 where she settled, achieving citizenship in 1939 and fame as a leading stage actress, as well a ...

as Hannah

Preservation status

All three ''Bab's'' films are now presumed lost.

References

External links

* 1917 films 1917 romantic comedy films Lost American romantic comedy films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by J. Searle Dawley Films based on works by Mary Roberts Rinehart Paramount Pictures films 1917 lost films 1910s American films Silent American romantic comedy films 1910s English-language films English-language romantic comedy films {{romantic-comedy-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Preservation status

See also

References

External links