An Innocent Theft (1912) User Reviews

Stealing from God

[boblipton · 5/10 · 17 September 2016]

Helen Gardner is so sick she can't get out of bed. There's no food nor money in the house, so her son, Kenneth Casey, steals money from the collection plate at church. What happens next is a surprise to him in this Vitagraph short.

Master Casey is very broad in his actions, and by 1912, this stagy style of acting was well out of favor in the movies. Although, had he continued as a performer, he would have learned better, he settled into another part of show business, becoming a composer and a songwriter. His best-known tune is "Sweet Georgia Brown". The other actors are fine, including Charles Kent as the minister; his presence in the cast makes me think that he is the director of this uncredited short that urges forgiveness and help, rather than punishment.

A good copy of this movie has been posted on the Eye Institute site on Youtube.

Kenneth Casey seems to be popular with the youngsters everywhere

[deickemeyer · 25 November 2016]

A picture with a very human and very pleasing situation, in which Kenneth Casey plays a very poor little boy with a sick mother in great distress at home. It is he who commits the innocent theft. He had been begging and followed some people into a church. They passed him a plate with money on it. He helped himself. Why not? His mother told him that the money was not intended for him, and, taking the coin back to the minister, he made friends and got a good job. The picture has a charm of its own. The audience seemed to enjoy it greatly. Kenneth Casey seems to be popular with the youngsters everywhere. There was a distinctly youthful note in the laughter that greeted him, at the end, in his bell-boy's uniform. Miss Helen Gardner plays the boy's mother and managed, at the critical moment, when the boy brought the minister to see her, to add much to the picture's sincerity. The photographs are very good. - The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912