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With Aunt Emaline Along
Also known as Their Chaperoned Honeymoon in the USA
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 816 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Lubin Manufacturing Company production. / Released 3 January 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [The Film Index, 8 January 1910, page ?, and The Moving Picture World, 8 January 1910, page 32] Jack Shafer gets married and his Aunt Emaline decides that Jack is entirely too young to go roaming about the country on an unchaperoned honeymoon, and, anyway, Aunt Amaline likes to travel. She wires the new Mrs. Jack that her nephew insists that she travel with them, and, like a dutiful wife, the latter assents. It is just as easy to tell Jack that his wife wants a companion, and it is not until they have started on their wedding journey that they discover the imposition. Then they try to run away, but Aunt Emaline is on the alert, and she beats every movie until they lock her in her hotel room and head for home. But even then, they have time only to lock the door before Aunt Emaline is pounding for admittance, and not until they pour a couple of buckets of water upon her from an upper window does Aunt Emaline realize that she is not welcome. It is a screaming farce, played with the spirit and dash that have made the Lubin comedies in world-wide demand. // [The Moving Picture World, 15 January 1910, page ?] Mothers-in-law are the dread of the newly married. One reason that Daisy Durham accepted Jack Shafer was that he was an orphan, and no mother-in-law threatened to share her rule. But Jack has an aunt who has been more than a mother to him, and she decides that the two young people were not to be trusted gallivanting about the country all alone. By explaining to Daisy that Jack insisted, Aunt Emaline silences her objection, and then tells Jack that Daisy is afraid and wants a chaperone. Jack says something that is not ‘yes,’ but all the same Aunt Emaline rides to the station in the bridal coach and assumes personal conduct of the honeymoon by tipping the obsequious porter a penny when Jack is happy enough to give the man a dollar. Arrived at the journey’s end, Jack and Daisy seek to run away from Aunt Emaline, for each has found that the other does not want her along. But they can’t lose Auntie. They run away and head for home, but Daisy drops her purse and Jack, in stopping to get it, is left behind and takes a train on another road that makes a little better time and gets him to the city at the same hour. Aunt Emaline is on the train, too, though Jack does not see her. The result is that they all reach the Shafers’ new home about the same time. Daisy and Jack see Aunt Emaline coming and run into the house, locking all the doors. Aunt Emaline begins to have a doubt in her mind as to whether she really is welcome, and this doubt becomes a certainty when Jack pours a couple of buckets of water over her from an upper window.
Reviews: [Variety, 8 January 1910, page ?] The Philadelphia manufacturer gets credit for a good comic in this reel. An aunt forces herself on a bride and groom, insisting upon accompanying them on the bridal tour. Shake her they cannot, try as they may. Her persistency in turning up every time they think they have outwitted and shaken her off constitutes the comedy. Laughs come fast. There is nothing unreasonable in the idea. It is the best planned and best accomplished comedy reel shown in a long time. // [The Moving Picture World, 15 January 1910, page ?] Here is one of those comedies which have made the Lubin pictures famous, and have made audiences laugh from one end of the land to the other. The whimsical conception of a chaperoned honeymoon loses none of its attractiveness in the hands of Lubin’s capable company. Not until aunty is doused with a number of pails of water does she understand that the newly-married couple prefer her room to her company. The situations are comical and the aunt’s persistence is worthy of a better cause perhaps.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 April 2024.
References: MovPicWorld-19100108 p. 32 : Website-AFI.
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