... and a bunch of racial stereotypes too. The wonder of this film is, besides the unusual plot, that it is an example of rather sophisticated comedy film making in 1914 when so much film comedy consisted of throwing pies and kicking people in the pants. There is a dearth of title cards, but the acting is good enough that you can pretty easily follow the plot.
Lillian Travers (Edith Storey) of New York writes her fiancé, Dr. Fred Cassadene (Sidney Drew) of Florida, that she has come into her inheritance and that they can now marry. She is on her way. When she arrives, she finds Fred in a compromising position with a wealthy young woman. It seems the woman has designs on Fred, and uses the fact that he is the doctor at the resort where she is staying to make excuses to get close to him by feigning illness. Still, Lillian is jealous. She finds some magical seeds that are supposed to turn men into women and women into men, yet the letter that accompanies the seeds is addressed "to all women who suffer". When Fred stands her up for a date - again occupied with the young woman from the resort - she takes one of the seeds, and her inner transformation is instantaneous. The outer transformation takes awhile.
Fred does not understand why his fiancée is flirting with all of the young women and has started treating him like a rather wimpy competitor for the ladies versus a fiancé. Lillian feeds her maid a seed, pretty much against her will, in order to turn her into a valet. Lillian breaks her engagement, returns to New York with her "valet", and both of them start dressing like men and cut their hair short. Thus Lillian and the valet do not seem to see themselves as gay, but as heterosexual men who still retain some feminine physical characteristics. With Lillian now going by the name "Lawrence Talbot", for some reason she decides to return to Florida. What follows are some comical cases of mistaken identity, Lawrence being accused of murdering Lillian, Fred taking one of the seeds and - very strangely - as one of the most unattractive women in the history of the world, being chased by an apparently sex-crazed group of men down a street in broad daylight and into the bay. Can Lillian/Lawrence rescue Fred? Does she/he even want to do so? Watch and find out.
One of the hardest things to get past is the obvious huge age gap between engaged couple Lillian and Fred. Lillian is being played by a 21 year old actress, and Fred, played by Sidney Drew of the famous Drew acting family, was 51 when this film was made.
I'd recommend this one as a big step forward in the sophistication of film comedy, made a full year before "Birth of a Nation", which did the same for film drama.
Lillian Travers (Edith Storey) of New York writes her fiancé, Dr. Fred Cassadene (Sidney Drew) of Florida, that she has come into her inheritance and that they can now marry. She is on her way. When she arrives, she finds Fred in a compromising position with a wealthy young woman. It seems the woman has designs on Fred, and uses the fact that he is the doctor at the resort where she is staying to make excuses to get close to him by feigning illness. Still, Lillian is jealous. She finds some magical seeds that are supposed to turn men into women and women into men, yet the letter that accompanies the seeds is addressed "to all women who suffer". When Fred stands her up for a date - again occupied with the young woman from the resort - she takes one of the seeds, and her inner transformation is instantaneous. The outer transformation takes awhile.
Fred does not understand why his fiancée is flirting with all of the young women and has started treating him like a rather wimpy competitor for the ladies versus a fiancé. Lillian feeds her maid a seed, pretty much against her will, in order to turn her into a valet. Lillian breaks her engagement, returns to New York with her "valet", and both of them start dressing like men and cut their hair short. Thus Lillian and the valet do not seem to see themselves as gay, but as heterosexual men who still retain some feminine physical characteristics. With Lillian now going by the name "Lawrence Talbot", for some reason she decides to return to Florida. What follows are some comical cases of mistaken identity, Lawrence being accused of murdering Lillian, Fred taking one of the seeds and - very strangely - as one of the most unattractive women in the history of the world, being chased by an apparently sex-crazed group of men down a street in broad daylight and into the bay. Can Lillian/Lawrence rescue Fred? Does she/he even want to do so? Watch and find out.
One of the hardest things to get past is the obvious huge age gap between engaged couple Lillian and Fred. Lillian is being played by a 21 year old actress, and Fred, played by Sidney Drew of the famous Drew acting family, was 51 when this film was made.
I'd recommend this one as a big step forward in the sophistication of film comedy, made a full year before "Birth of a Nation", which did the same for film drama.