A picture of a few human beings. They live in a small country town and seem to center around the village church. It doesn't shut its eyes to the frailties of mortal flesh; but it is optimistic, good-natured and leaves a pleasant taste, indeed, it is a picture among pictures to entertain, encourage and amuse. It is wonderful how the Biograph producer gets his many different characters, for hardly can the players be recognized so sure are they in their assumption of the peculiarities and semblance of people not themselves. One marvels that they are; but seeing them, he is not astonished to find them acting humorously. The scenario behind this picture of the little girl (Mary Pickford), of a miserly father for whom the minister bought a new hat, because her dying mother, knowing the father's stinginess, had given him a little money to get her a "few bits of finery," isn't strong in its primary idea; but it has been mighty well worked up. Then the motivation of the characters is so clearly drawn and the humor of them so often convinces laughter that the audience gets satisfaction. Clair McDowell plays an old spinster, Mae Marsh has an unimportant part. - The Moving Picture World, December 21, 1912
Review of The New York Hat
