{{short description|1917 silent film by Paul Powell}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}} {{infobox film | name = Cheerful Givers | image = Newspaper advertisement for Cheerful Givers starring Bessie Love.jpg | alt = Black and white newspaper advertisement featuring Bessie Love in period dress | caption = Newspaper advertisement | director = Paul Powell | producer = | writer = Mary H. O'Connor<ref name="motionpicturenew153unse-2295">{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture News|volume=15|issue=15|page=2332|title=Varying Themes in Four Triangle Presentations|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew153unse/page/2295}}</ref> | starring = {{Plainlist| * Bessie Love * Kenneth Harlan }} | music = | cinematography = John W. Leezer<ref>{{cite book |last=Love |first=Bessie |year=1977 |title=From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love |location=London |publisher=Elm Tree Books |oclc=734075937 |page=149}}</ref> | editing = | studio = Fine Arts Film Company | distributor = Triangle Film Corporation | released = {{Film date|1917|4|15|U.S.|ref1=<ref name="XaoiAQAAMAAJ-60" />}} | runtime = 5 reels<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/completelistofmo124kans|page=[https://archive.org/details/completelistofmo124kans/page/14 14]|title=Complete List of Motion Picture Films|author=Kansas State Board of Review|date=1917}}</ref> | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) }} '''''Cheerful Givers''''' is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama film produced by the Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation.<ref name="motionpicturenew153unse-2295" /> The film stars Bessie Love and Kenneth Harlan.<ref>{{cite book|title=The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films 1911–1920|editor-last=Hanson|editor-first=Patricia King|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, California|date=1988|isbn=978-0-520-06301-3|page=101}}</ref>

The film is presumed lost.

== Plot == thumb|alt=Black and white film still showing a dramatic scene in a crowded room|Scene featuring Spottiswoode Aitken To save her father's orphanage, Judy (Love) answers a request to have the "eldest boy" work in the kitchen of a wealthy, miserly woman. Disguising herself as a boy, she encounters the woman's son, Horace (Harlan), whom she mistrusts. Horace realizes Judy is actually a girl and falls in love with her. Judy ultimately thwarts his plan to steal from his mother's safe. The son repents, and Judy reciprocates his feelings.<ref name="XaoiAQAAMAAJ-60">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaoiAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA60 |author=L.H. |magazine=The Billboard |page=60 |title=Films Reviewed |date=April 21, 1917}}</ref><ref name="motionpicturenew153unse-2690">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew153unse/page/2653 |magazine=Motion Picture News |volume=15 |issue=17 |page=2690 |last=Milne |first=Peter |title=Screen Examinations |date=April 28, 1917}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaoiAQAAMAAJ |magazine=The Billboard |page=62 |title=Pictures and Everything That Appertains Thereto |date=April 7, 1917}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayjournal02lave/page/n33 |page=26 |magazine=The Photo-Play Journal |date=May 1917 |volume=2 |issue=1 |title=The Silent Trend |last=Essex |first=Bert D.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wNYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT149 |title=Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908–1934 |first=Laura |last=Horak |publisher=Rutgers University Press |date=February 26, 2016 |isbn=978-0-8135-7484-4}}</ref>

== Cast == thumb|alt=Black and white film still showing two women in 1917 period dress|Josephine Crowell and Bessie Love {{Cast listing| * Bessie Love as Judy * Kenneth Harlan as Horace Gray * Josephine Crowell as Mrs. Harriet Gray * Spottiswoode Aitken as Reverend John Deady * Bessie Buskirk as Lizzie Vance * Pauline Starke as Abigail Deady * Winifred Westover as Estella * Loyola O'Connor as Mrs. Parker * William H. Brown as Bob, Factotum of Orphanage * Violet Radcliffe as Orphan * Beulah Burns as Orphan * George Stone as Orphan * 'Baby' Carmen De Rue as Orphan * Francis Carpenter as Orphan * Ninon Fovieri as Orphan * Lloyd Perl as Orphan * Violet Wilkey as Oldest Orphan Girl (uncredited)<ref name="XaoiAQAAMAAJ-60" /><ref name="motionpicturenew153unse-2690" /> }}

== Reception == The film received generally positive reviews, being described as an "adroit comedy" and "perfectly done".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayvolume11112chic/page/966 |pages=86–87 |magazine=Photoplay Magazine |title=The Shadow Stage |last=Johnson |first=Julian |date=July 1917 |volume=12 |issue=2}}</ref> It was noted for its broad appeal.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/motography18elec/page/542 |magazine=Motography |volume=18 |issue=11 |date=September 15, 1917 |page=542 |last=Whitman |first=M.H. |title=What the Picture Did for Me}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/motography18elec/page/642 |magazine=Motography |volume=18 |issue=13 |date=September 29, 1917 |page=643 |last=Manley |first=P.F. |title=What the Picture Did for Me}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Motography |volume=17 |issue=18 |date=May 5, 1917 |page=920 |url=https://archive.org/details/motography17elec/page/920 |title=What the Picture Did for Me |last=Trinz |first=S.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Motography |volume=17 |issue=20 |date=May 19, 1917 |page=1028 |url=https://archive.org/details/motography17elec/page/1028 |title=What the Picture Did for Me |last=Trinz |first=Edward}}</ref> However, some reviewers found the pacing too slow.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Motography |volume=19 |issue=10 |page=450 |date=March 9, 1918 |first=A.N. |last=Miles |url=https://archive.org/details/motography19elec/page/450 |title=What the Picture Did for Me}}</ref>

Bessie Love's performance was generally praised,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2IwAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PR38 |magazine=Forest Leaves |page=4 |volume=11 |issue=16 |date=April 20, 1917 |title=At the Oak Park Theater}}</ref> although it was noted that she had not yet become a major box office draw nationwide.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/motography18elec/page/60 |magazine=Motography |volume=18 |issue=2 |date=July 14, 1917 |page=61 |last=Guthrie |first=George B. |title=What the Picture Did for Me}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Motography |volume=17 |issue=19 |date=May 12, 1917 |page=977 |url=https://archive.org/details/motography17elec/page/976 |title=What the Picture Did for Me |last=Miller |first=Harry}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Cheerful Givers}} * {{IMDb title|0007787}} * {{AFI film|15667|Cheerful Givers}} * {{cite web |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ff471a5 |title=Cheerful Givers |website=British Film Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518050406/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ff471a5 |archive-date=May 18, 2021}} * [http://www.younghollywoodhof.com/wilkey/wilkey13.jpg Lobby poster]

Category:1917 films Category:1917 comedy-drama films Category:1917 lost films Category:1917 American films Category:1917 English-language films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent feature films Category:Cross-dressing in American films Category:English-language comedy-drama films Category:Films about orphans Category:Films directed by Paul Powell (director) Category:Films shot in Los Angeles Category:Lost American silent comedy-drama films Category:Triangle Film Corporation films

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