Daily Archives: April 8, 2017

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Stella Maris (1918)

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Stella Maris (1918)

 

Dir: Marshall Neilan

Cast: Mary Pickford, Ida Waterman, Herbert Standing, Conway Tearle, Marcia Manon, Josephine Crowell, Lou Conley, Gustav Von Seyffertitz

84 min

 

 

 

Stella Maris is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Marshall Neilan, written by Frances Marion and based on William John Locke‘s 1913 novel of the same name. The film stars Mary Pickford in dual roles as the title character and an orphan servant.

The film was remade in 1925, with Mary Philbin in the title role.

Plot

Stella Maris (Mary Pickford) was born paralyzed and is unable to walk. Her wealthy guardians try to prevent her from being exposed to all the bad that is happening in the world. She is not allowed to leave her room in a London mansion and is bound to her bed. Her door even has a sign on it which says: “All unhappiness and world wisdom leave outside. Those without smiles need not enter.” [1] Stella has no idea a war is going on in the world and that there are poor and hungry people.

John Risca (Conway Tearle) is a well-known journalist and a friend of the family. He has been unhappily married to Louise for six years now and frequently visits Stella. John wants Stella to think he is perfect and lies about being unmarried. Louise, meanwhile, wants a servant in her house and hires orphan Unity Blake (also Mary Pickford). Unity is uneducated and has been deprived and mistreated for her entire life. This resulted in her being afraid of everyone.

One night, a drunk Louise orders Unity to get some groceries. Unity does what she is told and on her way back, the food is stolen by kids. She returns to the home only to be beaten by an outraged Louise. Unity is severely hurt and Louise gets arrested. It is announced she will have to serve three years in prison. John is kinder to Unity and adopts her. Unity is very grateful and falls in love with him. John himself is only interested in Stella. John wishes Unity to be raised at the Blount’s residence, but they don’t want her. They prevent her from meeting Stella, fearing Stella will notice there are suffering people in the world. They finally convince John to raise Unity at Aunt Gladys’ house.

In order to make John fall in love with her, Unity starts to educate herself. Meanwhile, Stella gets an operation and is able to walk after three years. She meets John and they fall in love. One day she decides to give John a surprise visit. Louise, who has just been released from jail, opens the door and tells Stella the truth about her marriage. Stella is heartbroken upon learning that he lied to her about his marriage. Feeling betrayed, she tells John to leave her alone and refuses to talk to her family upon seeing how much sadness and pain are in the world.

Meanwhile, Unity uses one of John’s suits and pretends he is asking her to marry him. When he comes home heartbroken over losing Stella, she tries to busy herself with work. As she hears Aunt Gladys’ concerns about John’s inability to be free to love Stella while Louise lives, Unity realizes she and John can never be a couple. At her relatives’ home, Stella reconciles with them and comes to the realization that while there will be sadness and pain in the world, there are also joy and happiness that follows it. At Aunt Gladys’ home, Unity writes him a note which she thanks him for showing her kindness and says he should get together with Stella. She secretly grabs a gun from a gun collection and settles the score by killing Louise for the pain she inflicted on herself, Stella and John. She next kills herself, making the police think it was a revenge murder as her troubled history is well known even to them. Aunt Gladys convinces Stella’s wealthy relatives to give John another chance and not think badly about Unity for she helped free him from his abusive wife. John is reunited with Stella and they marry.

Cast

Reception

Like many American films of the time, Stella Maris was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of the shooting by Unity.[2]

Preservation status

Stella Maris still exists with copies preserved at the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education and the Library of Congress.[3]

DVD release

Stella Maris was released on Region 0 DVD by Milestone Film & Video on April 18, 2000.[4]

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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

Dir: Marshall Neilan

Cast: Mary Pickford, Eugene O’Brien, Helen Jerome Eddy, Charles Ogle, Marjorie Daw, Mayme Kelso, Jane Wolfe, Josephine Crowell

78 min

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the novel of the same name by Kate Douglas Wiggin. This version is notable for having been adapted by famed female screenwriter Frances Marion. The film was made by the “Mary Pickford Company” and was an acclaimed box office hit. When the play premiered on Broadway in the 1910 theater season the part of Rebecca was played by Edith Taliaferro.[1][2][3]

Plot

As described in a film magazine,[4] Rebecca Randall (Pickford) is taken into the home of her aunt Hannah (Eddy), a strict New England woman. Rebecca meets Adam Ladd (O’Brien), a young man of the village, and they become great friends. One day Rebecca promises to marry Adam when she becomes of age. Unable to withstand her pranks any longer, her aunt sends her away to a boarding school. She graduates a beautiful young lady. Shortly thereafter, Adam demands a fulfillment of her promise.

Cast

Production

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was filmed in Pleasanton, California.

Reception

Like many American films of the time, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of the intertitle “I have just learned the Simpsons are not married.”[5]

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Poor Little Rich Girl, The (1917)

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Poor Little Rich Girl, The (1917)

 

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

Cast: Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks, Frank McGlynn Sr., Emilie La Croix, Marcia Harris, Charles Craig, Frank Andrews

76 min

kinopoisk.ru

 

 

The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1917 American comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur. Adapted by Frances Marion from the 1913 play by Eleanor Gates.[1] The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress Viola Dana.[2] The film stars Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks (returning from the play) and Frank McGlynn, Sr.

The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey when early film studios in America’s first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century.[3][4][5] In 1991, The Poor Little Rich Girl was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

Gwendolyn is an 11-year-old girl who is left by her rich and busy parents to the care of unsympathetic domestic workers at the family’s mansion. Her mother is only interested in her social life and her father has a serious financial problem and is even contemplating suicide. When she manages to have some good time with an organ-grinder or a plumber, or have a mud-fight with street boys, she is rapidly brought back on the right track. One day she becomes sick because the maid has given her an extra dose of sleeping medicine to be able to go out. She then becomes delirious and starts seeing an imaginary world inspired by people and things around her; the Garden of Lonely Children in the Tell-Tale forest. Her conditions worsens and Death tries to lure her to eternal rest. But Life also appears to her and finally wins.[6]

Cast

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Heart O’The Hills (1919)

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Heart O’The Hills (1919)

 

Dir: Joseph De Grasse and Sidney Franklin

Cast: Mary Pickford, Harold Goodwin, Allan Sears, Fred Huntley, Claire McDowell, Sam De Grasse

87 min

 

Heart O The Hills 1

Heart O The Hills 3

Mary Pickford in Heart o’ the Hills 1919. American silent drama film directed by Joseph De Grasse and Sidney Franklin; written by Bernard McConville based on John Fox; Jr.’s novel of the same name. Mary Pickford (April 8; 1892 – May 29; 1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress; co-founder of the film studio United Artists

 

Heart o’ the Hills is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by Joseph De Grasse and Sidney Franklin, written by Bernard McConville based on John Fox, Jr.‘s novel of the same name.

Plot

Jason Honeycutt (Harold Goodwin) is a young boy who lives with his stepfather chief Steve Honeycutt (Sam De Grasse) at the ancestral Honeycutts’ home. One day the chief is looking for the 13-year-old mountain girl Mavis Hawn (Mary Pickford), who is shooting bullets in the woods. Mavis desires revenge after a few gang members attacked her home and shot and killed her father. One of her only friends is geologist and school teacher John Burnham (Fred Warren). He suggests she get an education instead of learning to use a gun.

Chief Honeycutt visits Mavis’ widowed mother Martha Hawn (Claire McDowell) and flirts with her. Meanwhile, Mavis is fishing at a pond near her home with Jason. He reveals his stepfather is manipulating Martha into granting him her land. When a group of planters and capitalists come to town intending to exploit mountain coal lands, Mavis scares them away with her gun. She and Jason later run into the rich aristocrat Gray Pendleton (John Gilbert) and his sweetheart Marjorie Lee (Betty Bouton), who are looking for the town.

Back at home, Mavis is disappointed Steve is still there. Later that night, Mavis visits a party and meets Gray for the second time. He flirts with her, which makes Jason jealous. Gray forces himself up to Mavis, which makes her upset and angry. She leaves the party and finds out her mother has left her to marry Steve. She decides to marry as well and proposes to Jason. However, they soon find out they are too young.

When word hits town that a man named Morton Sanders (Henry Hebert) is planning to take over the city, some of the inhabitants, including Mavis, threaten him to force him go away. Later that night, Morton is found dead and the police are looking for everyone who was involved. The police visits the Hawn house, but Mavis’ grandfather (Fred Huntley) forces them to go away. While holding them off with his shotgun, Mavis packs her things and goes to hide in the forest. The next day, John Burnham visits her and convinces her to go to trial to prove her innocence.

In court, the lawyer of the other party demands for her to be hanged. The town folks try to defend her by all admitting they have shot Morton. Mavis is discharged and finally decides to go to school. Mr. Burnham, Gray and Marjorie are all pleased with Mavis’ decision. Jason however, becomes jealous again when she starts hanging out with Gray at school and leaves her.

Six years pass. Mavis has been adopted by the rich Colonel Pendleton (W.H. Bainbridge). One day she receives a letter from her mother, announcing she is getting old and will most likely die soon. She decides to visit her mother and finds out Steve killed her father. He has become violent and takes it out on Martha. Mavis tries to help her and shoots Steve. Martha survives the incident and takes Mavis in to live with her. Mavis is reunited with a grown-up Jason and they marry.

Cast

 

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