How a Horseshoe Upset a Happy Family (1912) User Reviews (2)

Lots of Luck

[boblipton · 6/10 · 8 October 2016]

Alice Washburn finds a horse shoe and brings it home for luck -- all of it bad -- in this amusing split-reel comedy from Edison.

Horse shoes have a reputation for bringing good luck. This slapstick comedy tackles the subject in an entertaining fashion, with good timing and plenty of pratfalls. People who enjoy spotting actors in small roles before they hit it big will take pleasure in spotting Arthur Houseman (he's the man who gets hit by the horse shoe). Houseman, who would become one of the familiar comic drunks of the movies in the 1930s (the other was Jack Norton), was a frequent cast member in Edison movies in the 1910s.

A copy of this film is on the Eye Institute site on Youtube. It is nicely tinted, but rather worn.

The picture is very amusing

[deickemeyer · 23 April 2017]

Louise Sydmeth, the authoress of this character sketch, has given Edward O'Connor a fine chance to play an Irishman (Mike) with a black eye, one of the prettiest ones we have ever had the good fortune to see. Alice Washburn plays the Irishman's wife and is almost as funny. It is she who finds the horseshoe and brings home that which is to be the cause of a free fight in the kitchen, the breaking of china and of other unlucky things. Mrs. William Bechtel plays Mike's mother-in-law. Marty Fuller and Yale Boss have roles as two boys. Arthur Houseman plays the other Irishman who is hit when Mike flings the offending bit of iron out of the window and who comes in to find why such things should happen. The picture is very amusing and made much hearty laughter. - The Moving Picture World, January 11, 1913