This is not one of Griffith's better pieces. True, by this time, his control of pacing and cutting is so assured and casual that he must have been very certain of his audience. But the story is slight, and he presents an odd mixture of bucolic innocence in the outdoor scenes and contrasts it with a village idiot -- played by Joseph Graybill -- whose lust for pretty, sixteen-year-old schoolmarm Blanche Sweet drives him to a fit in which he alternately threatens her with a gun and offers himself as the gun's target.
Still, Griffith's company can act for the screen by this time. Except for three or four titles at the beginning, explaining who the characters are, there is precisely one written item in the body of the movie -- the note Blanche writes her boyfriend Edwin August, which she throws away but is delivered by equally love-struck pupil, Billy, as portrayed by Edna Foster.
Griffith always maintained his love for country life on the screen, but his story-telling compelled him to more complicated views of life, and his natural bent was to adorn his melodramas with some of the complexities of realities. Yes, country living is nice, but ... too bad it doesn't really work here. For completists only.
Still, Griffith's company can act for the screen by this time. Except for three or four titles at the beginning, explaining who the characters are, there is precisely one written item in the body of the movie -- the note Blanche writes her boyfriend Edwin August, which she throws away but is delivered by equally love-struck pupil, Billy, as portrayed by Edna Foster.
Griffith always maintained his love for country life on the screen, but his story-telling compelled him to more complicated views of life, and his natural bent was to adorn his melodramas with some of the complexities of realities. Yes, country living is nice, but ... too bad it doesn't really work here. For completists only.