"Whiffles Has a Sensitive Soul," or "Rigadin," is an insulting short film from the silent era, included on Edition Filmmuseum's two-disc set "Screening the Poor." In it, a mugging comic of an actor cries over every perceived hardship of others. He reads about chickens being run over and so he cries and turns away his chicken dinner. Walking about, he gives money, as well as the literal clothes off his back, to beggars and merchants. These poor who he believes to be helping, however, laugh at his generosity. He even tries to cloth a statue. Thus, the comedy's message seems to be that charitable contributions are for suckers. The bourgeois protagonist learns his lesson, and to assuage those pesky feelings of sympathy for others that he continues to have, he adopts a dog. As I said, it's insulting, but also a rather accurate depiction of a seemingly common sentiment, fair or not, regarding the poor, as well as greater pet ownership. Otherwise, the continuity across shots between the apartment of "Whiffles" and his perambulating around the neighborhood is technically decent for a one-reeler from 1910.(From New Zealand Film Archive 35mm nitrate print restored by the Royal Film Archive of Belgium)