The Little Teacher (1909) Online

To faithfully depict the interior workings of an old-time country school is a task which has its difficulties, but the Biograph Company has accomplished it as successfully as they have accomplished other difficult feats of the silent drama. This representation of a country school in operation is true to the originals, most of which have disappeared forever. And here is that representation of the first day when the pupils seldom attempted to conceal their contempt for the teacher, especially if, as in this instance, the individual happened to be small and youthful. There was the big bully who determined to make trouble in the school and succeeded, only to be soundly thrashed by an athletic surveyor who assumed the role of protector of the discouraged little teacher. Then the teacher falls in love with the surveyor, only to be disappointed when introduced to his wife. But instead of her being long left despondent, the honest love of Dave, the former bully, comes in to afford a balm for her heart, and she accepts his advances. Even though this sounds commonplace, the working out of the plot, with the glimpses of the old-fashioned school, are really extremely interesting, and for those who have never seen such a school it is a novelty worth more than ordinary attention. The staging and accessories are all worked out with the Biograph's consummate skill. The photography is clear and even the interiors are distinctly rendered. At Keith & Proctor's Bijou Dream, where we saw the film, it was loudly applauded and evidently caught the public fancy. - The Moving Picture World, October 23, 1909

These 11 minute films were tales rather than stories. They weren't long enough to have a structure, and because they were being churned out at least twice a week, they needed to be a tale rather than a scripted story. This is the era when the late Edgar Allan Poe came into his own because his one page tales had a natural home in these one-reelers.