Summary
A kinetic exploration of juvenile agency within the rigid social stratigraphy of early 20th-century cinema, 'We Should Worry' unfolds as a picaresque comedy of manners and machinations. The narrative pivots on the precocious Lee sisters, Jane and Katherine, whose domestic surveillance of their aunt, the luminous and wealthy Miss Ashton, leads to a tactical intervention against the meretricious charms of Percival Gilpatrick. While the children champion the earnest Jack Fenton, Gilpatrick—a surreptitious rogue—attempts to bypass their scrutiny through a series of increasingly desperate stratagems. The conflict escalates into a farcical kidnapping orchestrated by Gilpatrick’s inept confederates, Mike and Bill, who find themselves psychologically besieged by their own captives. This cellar-bound insurgency serves as a microcosm for the film's broader themes of class friction and the subversion of adult authority, ultimately culminating in a high-stakes bank heist where the children's observational prowess facilitates the restoration of romantic and legal order.
Synopsis
Little Jane and Katherine approve of the romance of Miss Ashton, their rich and beautiful aunt, with Jack Fenton, but when she becomes distracted by the debonair Percival Gilpatrick, whom the children detest, they decide to intervene. After the children interrupt his attempted marriage proposals several times, Percival, actually a crook, orders his accomplices, Mike and Bill, to keep the girls occupied. Annoyed that Percival would rather court Miss Ashton than rob the bank, however, Mike and Bill decide to kidnap the children and hold them for ransom. Imprisoned in a cellar, Jane and Katherine torment the two men with their pranks until the crooks willingly release them, but Percival stages a rescue that, much to the girls' dismay, impresses Miss Ashton. Later Percival and his men rob the bank, but the youngsters aid the police in catching them. Miss Ashton then happily agrees to marry Jack.
Director
