The Fairy and the Waif(1915)

The Fairy and the Waif is a 1915 silent film following Viola Drayton, a girl enchanted by fairy tales whose world unravels when her father, a colonel, is called to fight in the European War. Left in the care of the Nevisons with thirty thousand dollars for her future, Viola's prospects crumble when her father is killed in battle and Mr. Nevison steals her inheritance, squandering it entirely. His desperate wife takes in boarders to survive. Miserable and trapped, Viola runs away and finds unexpected refuge in a theater, where she lands a role playing the very thing that once captivated her imagination: a fairy. The film explores how hardship and loss can transform a dreamer's fate.