Jean and the Waif

Excellent 1-reeler from 1910, directed by Larry Trimble, who was Jean the Vitagraph Dog's owner/trainer.

Story has a childless couple (Leah Baird, William Humphrey) pampering Jean while they long to have a child. On the other side of town poor little Adele DeGarde is forced to slave in a boarding house owned by a cruel old woman.

When Adele runs away in a snowstorm, she happens to enter an open door in a building and finds Jean asleep in bed and so crawls into bed with Jean. When the couple returns, they find the two and there's a happy ending.

The detail in this film is great. Watch carefully when Adelele wakes up and talks to her ratty paper doll. When she runs away, watch carefully to see what she wears for gloves.

Such attention to detail in a 1910 film!

William Humphrey and Leah Baird are a loving couple. They spoil Jean the Vitagraph Dog, as would anybody: they have a place for her at the dinner table and dress her in clothes when she goes to sleep in her crib. They are obviously compensating for their being childless. That explains why, when they look through their rear window, they see Adele DeGard and sigh. Miss DeGard is an orphan who works at the boarding house across the alley, and is cruelly treated. Is Jean going to stand for this?

As much as I wish to sing the praises of Jean, I've done that in other reviews of her movies. Instead I will mention that this is Miss DeGarde's first movie. Over the next eight years she would appear in 125 more, before getting married and retiring from the screen. She died in 1966 at the age of 66.

A touching story of a pampered dog and an abused orphan forced to go out into the world alone, but who eventually reaches the house and the bed in which Jean sleeps. When the child is found with the dog the next morning she is immediately adopted and the two become inseparable friends. This film is one of those touching little heart stories that appeals to the audience in an indescribable way. The acting of the dog is interesting, but there is such a feeling of relief shown on the faces when the child finds a home where she will be cared for. The Vitagraph people have an unusually fine dog actor, but they are wise in not overworking her. The few appearances she makes are all interesting and leave the audience wanting more. - The Moving Picture World, January 7, 1911