The Little Tease

In this picture we see the Biograph at its best. It is a story of today and of anywhere; the story of the unsophisticated girl whose head is turned by a smooth stranger, who leaves her home and parents to go with him, only to discover that there is another, of polish and worldly- wise, with whom her newly found friend and supposed protector is really in love. The charm of this story lies in the natural acting. Most of the work falls to Mae Marsh and William Christie Miller. Henry Walthall is the stranger and Robert Herron the lover who for the time is neglected. The film exceeds the regulation thousand feet, and the surplus is amply justified. There are many strong situations. One was where the old father, his daughter gone and his wife just laid at rest, her death the result of shock, renounces the Bible; a second is where the girl sees her supposed lover in the embrace of another; a third is where the girl, found by her old sweetheart working in a restaurant, declines to return to her home; the best of all, however, is where the father puts the lantern in the window and hangs out the latch- string, and the ensuing reconciliation. - The Moving Picture World, April 26, 1913

Little Tease, The (1913)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film where the title character (Mae Marsh) falls in love with a man (Robert Harron) but her reputation for being a 'little tease' might catch up with her. This is a pretty standard little love story and moral lesson that the director had done many times before. Griffith's battle with the studio made for some less than stellar films during this period and this here is one of them. Henry B. Walthall and Lionel Barrymore also star.

You can find this short online or in various fan made Griffith compilations.

It's hard to say what might have happened if D.W. Griffith's bosses at Biograph had agreed to let him make features, instead of limiting him to three reels, as they did with this movie. With its strong story of lust, pride, anger and ultimate redemption, I think Griffith might have expanded it to encompass all the seven deadly sins. As it is, he produced a typically fine melodrama with strong outdoor photography.

Mae Marsh lives in the hills with her father, W. Christie Miller, and her crippled mother, Kate Bruce. Bobby Harron is sweet on her, but she likes to throw rocks at him, as well as the top-hatted and cloaked Henry B. Walthall who comes riding by one day. Walthall isn't taken aback. He gives her sauce, and talks her into coming down into the valley with her. While he is making arrangements, up comes Viola Dana, and they fight and cuddle. Miss Marsh realizes she has made a mistake, but can't go home. Instead she gets a job at a lunch room.

The copy recently posted on YouTube is from a complete 16mm print of great age. The story is quite obviously far more coy than the sort of stage melodrama that Griffith had doubtless toured in before getting into the movies, but a lot of the appurtenances are there. As one would expect for this period, the story-telling is brisk, the camera lingers only for the "beauty shots" of Miss Marsh in the open countryside -- and beautiful they are indeed -- and Griffith's star company fills out the group shots without any fuss -- if you look for them, you can spot Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore, but if you don't, they're just people standing where people would naturally stand, doing things that people would naturally do.

In the end, the survival of this three-reeler doesn't set new highs or lows for Griffith in this period. It's simply another fine work in a period when he was doing very fine work, and a pleasure for those of us who enjoy his work, warts and all.