The Scholar (film)
1918 film
The Scholar is a 1918 American 2-reel silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy.
Plot
When a beautiful new schoolteacher arrives in town, two rivals view for her attention: Oliver "Babe" Hardy and the little tramp in the form of a Charlie Chaplin impersonator.
Cast
Billy West as A Student
Oliver Hardy (credited as Babe Hardy)
Ethel Marie Burton as The Teacher (credited as Ethel Burton)
Leatrice Joy
Leo White
Joe Bordeaux
Reception
Like many American films of the time, The Scholar was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required cuts, in Reel 1, of the man pulling pincushion from his posterior, silhouette of girl undressing, Reel 2, schoolroom scene were boy kicks girl, man pulling tack from posterior, West striking boy with slingshot in posterior as he bends over, the intertitle "Teacher, can I go out?" and West's vulgar actions of smelling after the intertitle "Teacher, please let him out", school superintendent thumbing nose, scene of man's underwear showing through his torn trousers, two scenes of jabbing man with pin cushion to include West pulling man's coat apart exposing trousers, fat man pointing after child speaks to him, and fat man falling exposing underwear.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Scholar (film)” as 1918 film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1918 film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3989152. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Scholar (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Scholar (film) primary sources, The Scholar (film) archive and Scholar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Scholar (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.