British Film Institute

Willie's Magic Wand (1907), which W.R.Booth made the same year, showed a small boy wreaking havoc by supernatural means. A Juvenile Scientist is outwardly similar, though there are some key differences: the pranks have a rather more rational basis, both in terms of their scientific plausibility and that the boy's revenge is 'justified' by what he sees as unjust punishment for putting the dog and cat in the piano, because they were interfering with his studies.

In terms of special effects, this is one of Booth's least ambitious productions, with only the scene of the father flying through the air and landing in a chicken coop drawing on more elaborate resources than jump cuts and onscreen explosions. The film also shows that the device of a circular mask to represent a shot through a telescope had already become a generally recognized part of the cinema's visual vocabulary.

Michael Brooke

Click titles to see or read more