After the phenomenal success of Rescued by Rover (1905), Cecil Hepworth decided to make this sequel. His daughter Barbara Hepworth (not the sculptor) again played the baby (actually now a toddler), while the family dog, Blair, repeated his performance as Rover. Like the original, it is a simple story - a there and back again plot - but the sight of a dog fairly convincingly driving a car loses none of its entertainment value over a century later. The emblematic shot or 'curtain call' close-up of the main actors, Rover and the baby positions them as characters who will return. Barbara, one imagines, outgrew the role, but Blair would reappear as Rover as late as 1912.
Bryony Dixon
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