AllMovie

Among the many villains in D.W.Griffith's 1916 epic Intolerance were those self-styled "social uplifters" who presumptuously impose their moral values on others. Six years before Intolerance, Griffith gave these uplifters a good going over in his Biograph one-reeler A Simple Charity. In this instance, a poor scrubwoman is targeted for "redemption" by a pompous charitable organization. Rather than help the woman, however, the do-gooders hurt her by insisting that she put her life and future entirely in their hands. By film's end, the well-meaning uplifters are shown the error of their ways. A Simple Charity was partially filmed on location at Fort Lee, New Jersey (the current home of the CNBC and MSNBC cable TV networks).