A Four-Year-Old Heroine (1907) User Reviews

Wel-made early drama

[JoeytheBrit · 7/10 · 14 November 2009]

This is a typically well-produced little film from Alice Guy, the pioneering French woman. It follows a little four-year-old girl who skips away when her nursemaid falls asleep on a bench in the park. The little girl helps the police apprehend a couple of muggers, prevents a blind man from falling into a canal and a trio of drunks from being obliterated by a train at a level crossing before finding a helpful policeman to take her home much to the relief of her parents and nursemaid.

The film is particularly well edited, with sequential shots clearly showing the girl and her nursemaid leaving the lounge of the girl's parents, leaving the house and walking to the park. It's the sort of sequence that we take for granted today, but back then many filmmakers would probably have considered a couple of those shots superfluous. This one's worth a look.

You can always trust a policeman

[boblipton · 7/10 · 5 February 2009]

Although the Internet Movie Database lists this as a Feuillade film, the new collection from Gaumont claims this is a piece by Alice Guy. It's difficult to tell who was in charge, since a year before Miss Guy, the first film director in history, was doing a series of phonoscenes with a still camera and no cuts, and the same year Feuillade was directing things like LA BOUS-BOUS-MIE, with one scene change and a basic mise-en-scene.

In any case, this is a fairly sophisticated film as a nursemaid falls asleep in the park and lets her little charge wander away. But while the adult sleeps, the little girl wanders around the park, fetches the police to stop a fight and then, lost, finds a flic, who takes her to the police station and then home. Although the camera does not move, it is shot mostly in middle long shots and cut cleanly to tell a good story.

Certainly, this is a solid middle-class film, and reasonable-looking for the era. When I was the little girl's age, a half century or so ago, I had a serene assurance that adults looked out for children. Clearly Gaumont was going for a more prosperous audience.

According to Kino, Alice Guy alone directed this...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 5 February 2010]

I'm sure this happens all the time! A nursemaid takes her 4 year-old charge to the park. The lady soon falls asleep and in the meantime, the kid ends up doing some amazing things--capturing some crooks, saving a blind man's life, etc.--all just in a very short period of time. The kid is amazing and eventually the lady awakens and can't find the little do-gooder. When she goes to the police station, she learns that the tyke had a very busy day!!

This film, at least according to Kino video (who released a 3 DVD set of early Gaumont films) this was only directed by Guy, but IMDb lists her as a co-director. I'm not sure who's really the one who helmed the film--but it is well worth seeing.

Also, not surprisingly, due to the age and decay of the nitrate film stock, a small portion of this film is a real mess.

Young but Increasingly Sophisticated

[Cineanalyst · 9 April 2020]

Like the eponymous heroine here, cinema as mass entertainment was still quite young in 1907, but films such as this one were displaying ever-increasingly sophisticated style and technique. Although not the first to do any of this, its use of title cards and crosscutting across 20 shots (plus the 4 intertitles) is surprisingly resourceful. It's the camera and editing, too, after all, that become lost with the little girl, who, after performing a series of acts of goodwill, manages to find her way home by asking for assistance from the police. She even admonishes the maid herself for napping on the job and allowing her to roam off by jump rope. Smart one, this film and its central character, as well as remaining cute despite some brief print deterioration.