Muggsy's First Sweetheart (1910)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Muggsy (Billy Quirk), a young punk, falls for the beautiful Mabel (Mary Pickford) and goes to her house for a visit but her jokester father plays a trick on him, which sets forth all sorts of problems. Griffith will never be known for his comedies and most people don't even realize that he made quite a few of them but this here certainly isn't the best work he did in his career. The biggest problem here is that the laughs really don't come and we're left with a pleasant movie but not a funny one. Quirk left Biograph after this picture and he turns in a pretty good performance as he's very light on his feet and manages to play the part quite well. Pickford doesn't get to do too much but it's always fun seeing her in these early roles. The supporting players include George Nichols as the father and he clearly steals the film in the few scenes that he has. The "twist" in the film, or gag if you will, doesn't really work too well and the entire film is pretty much wrapped around this joke and it just didn't make me laugh. There's a twist in the second act but it too didn't work as well as I'm sure the filmmakers were wanting. Fans of early cinema will still see plenty of Griffith's style here as he does manage to keep the film moving and his editing choices are still very interesting and certainly a step up from various other productions of this period.