I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place but that's about it.
Casting his wife as the Mary Jane of the title, George Smith produced this engaging and technically impressive comedy. Longer than some of his other films this opens with a few minutes of his wife mugging like a good 'un with some boot polish. She is terrible by modern standards but silent movie acting is a different craft and it requires flamboyance and overacting which she delivers no doubt. After this we get some good effects as Mary Jane blows herself up leading to what I assume was a moral. However Smith marks himself out again by producing a "Carrie" moment half a century before De Palma was even put on earth.
It is a nice surprise and I'm sure it must have caused quite a stir at the time. Yet again another example of Smith being a pioneer of the art and not a bad little film at the same time.