The School Teacher and the Waif

When I saw the title, "The School Teacher and the Waif" I was worried that it would involve a student and teacher falling in love. This is not the case, and instead it's a nice little film from D. W. Griffith.

Now that I mentioned Griffith, I should address something that will doubtless be noticed by viewers today....that a couple of the background characters are white guys in blackface. Griffith was a racist, though I have heard some apologists make excuses for it. He didn't seem to like black actors and repeatedly gave the roles to white actors in burnt cork makeup. He was a product of his times. But, as a retired history teacher, I am loathe to ban or avoid films because they have offensive characters....especially in this case since the 'blacks' don't behave offensively in any way...other than really being white men! Accept it for what it is....and apart from this it's a nice little film.

The film begins with the Waif (Mary Pickford) being a bit of a wild child and who never attended school. Well, local officials didn't like this and soon this teen is in school. She takes to school reasonably well despite the taunts from the other students, but soon she storms off when her nice teacher behaves uncharacteristically nasty...making her wear a dunce cap!! But she runs into the arms of a lecher who pretends to love her and want to marry her....and it's up to the teacher to come to her rescue.

For a 1912 film, "The School Teacher and the Waif" is quite good. It also lacks some of the overacting too often seen in early films. Well worth seeing and a nice chance to see Mary Pickford just before she became a mega-star.

Little Mary Pickford plays in this picture a pathetic, but very attractive waif, "Mad-cap Madge," who is forced to go to school. She is a very original harem-scarem who is the butt of the other school children. The plot of the story is very simple. She falls in love with a traveling patent medicine man. The teacher (a man) saves her from making a false step and falls in love with her himself. In the way the changing situation is developed, and in the quality of the acting, there is much Biograph atmosphere, but while part is as fine as can be, parts (the schoolhouse scenes), are very conventional. The waif is a praiseworthy bit of work; the school teacher is disappointing. As a whole, for its story, for its human-nature, and for its scene-making, including photography, we commend it as an excellent offering. It will please. - The Moving Picture World, July 13, 1912

Mary has been raised on her father's hardscrabble farm. Now the local authorities have sent her to school, and she hates it. The other students make fun of her, she can't do her lessons. Eventually, she agrees to run away with a traveling patent medicine salesman, who promises to marry her... but has no intention of doing so.

By this time, D. W. Griffith had attained such an ease of composition that he needs only a couple of the half dozen or so titles he scatters through this movie; they are there, really, only to comment somewhat poetically, on what goes on.

There are, of course, some things in this movie that will offend the modern audience; the traveling show has a black-faced entertainer, and Edwin August as the teacher shows a romantic interest in his student. Still, both reflect the mores of the era... and since Little Mary is 20 years old, who can blame him?