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The Waif; or, Out in the Street
(1904) United States of America
B&W : 640 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company production; distributed by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and Kleine Optical Company. / Cinematography by A.E. Weed. / © 6 April 1904 by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company [H44209]. Released April 1904. / [?] Mutoscope 68mm spherical 1.36:1 format? / Biograph production number 2864.
Drama.
Synopsis: [From Biograph promotional materials] This is a splendid melodramatic subject and acted by most capable people. The opening picture shows the home of a poor woman whose last resources have been exhausted. She is left with no means of support for her two small children, one of them a baby in arms. In order to save the baby’s life, she decides to leave it at the door of some rich person, and the first scene closes where she places her baby in a basket and goes out into the winter night. Next scene is a raging storm, when the poor woman leaves her baby at a millionaire’s door. The child is taken in, and the subsequent scene shows how gladly it is received by the childless wife of the rich man. The next scene shows what has occurred in the home of the poor woman while she has been away. An eviction takes place, and all of her goods are thrown into the street and her two-year-old child placed on top of the heap and left at the mercy of the storm. A policeman rescues the child and takes it to a place of safety, but when the mother comes back she finds her second child gone and her little home in ruins. In desperation she rushes back to the home of the rich man where she left the baby and, exhausted with cold and hunger, she faints on the doorstep. She is there discovered by the benevolent millionaire and is taken into the house, revived and her baby restored to her. The millionaire and his wife accompany her back to her home, and there the picture comes to a happy ending when the second child is restored to her by the policeman and her rent is paid and she is left with sufficient means to take care of her two youngsters. This picture has made a tremendous hit wherever it has been shown. It has excellent photographic quality from start to finish.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 14 April 2024.
References: Niver-First p. 57 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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