Reportedly, leading actress Mary Pickford fought constantly with Sidney Olcott about the character. Olcott wanted Pickford to be more reserved and thought she was “too Americanized to play a Japanese”.[1]
Plot
The film takes place in Japan in 1904. Lieutenant Pinkerton (Marshall Neilan) marries Cho-Cho-San ‘Butterfly’ (Mary Pickford), a 15-year-old Japanese geisha. Cho-Cho-San is lucky with her new husband and takes the marriage very seriously. Pinkterton, however, regards it as entertainment. He is not in love with her and plans to break off the wedding in a month. The American Consul (William T. Carleton) begs him to break off the wedding as soon as possible, to avoid hurting her feelings. The lieutenant laughs him off.
After Pinkerton forces Cho-Cho-San to end their wedding reception early, her disapproving family disowns her. When Pinkerton is ordered to return to America, he promises Cho-Cho-San he will return before he leaves. Three years go by. Cho-Cho-San, now a mother, still believes Pinkerton will return someday, while he is engaged to an American woman. He sends her a letter to announce he will marry another woman, but Cho-Cho-San can’t read.
Meanwhile, The Prince of Japan (David Burton) takes interest in Cho-Cho-San, but she refuses his company and claims she is still waiting for her husband. Sometime later, Pinkerton returns to Japan but he hands the American Consul some money as compensation for Cho-Cho-San and leaves again. When Cho-Cho-San comes to ask about her husband, she runs into Pinkerton’s new American wife. The American woman asks Cho-Cho-San to give them her child, as he will be given better opportunities and prosperity under their parenting. Cho-Cho-San is crushed but complies and hands over her child. She kills herself in the final scene by walking into a river and drowning.
Cast; Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Mary Louise Miller, Gustav Von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau, Spec O’Donnell, Lloyd Whitlock, Billy Butts, Monty O’Grady, Jackie Levine
84 min
kinopoisk.ru
Sparrows is a 1926 American silent film about a young woman who rescues a baby from kidnappers. The film, which was originally titled Scraps, starred and was produced by Mary Pickford, who was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time.[1][2]
Mr. Grimes and his wife operate a dismal “baby farm” near an alligator-infested swamp. Molly, an adolescent inmate and the oldest of their charges, attempts to provide the other tattered, starving kids with the loving maternal care they need. Most of the children are orphans. One mother sends her child a doll, but Grimes crushes its head and tosses it into the swamp.
The children are ordered to hide anytime someone comes to the farm. When a hog buyer shows up, Ambrose, the Grimes’ son, maliciously prevents Splutters, one of the children, from hiding. The buyer then purchases the boy from Grimes.
Molly has promised the others that God will rescue them. When a boy asks why nothing has happened after a month, she tells him that He is busy attending to sparrows (a biblical reference).
Ambrose catches Molly with stolen potatoes, so she and the others are given no supper. She pleads for the children, especially the sick, youngest baby, to no avail. Late that night, in a vision, Christ enters the barn where they sleep and takes the baby. When Molly wakes up, the child is dead.
Joe Bailey and his associate bring a kidnapped baby girl to the farm for concealment until they receive a ransom from the rich father, Dennis Wayne. When Grimes reads about the kidnapping in the newspaper several days later, he decides it is safer to chuck the baby into the swamp.
When Ambrose grabs the little girl to carry out the plan, Molly gets her back. After she fights off Grimes with a pitchfork, he strands her in the hayloft and decides he must get rid of her, too.
That night, Molly flees with the children. Grimes finds this hilarious; he figures either the mud or the alligators will take care of the children. However, when the kidnappers come back for the baby, he leads them on a search.
Meanwhile, Splutters is brought to the police station, having been discovered by one of the search parties. He tells the policemen and Mr. Wayne about the baby farm.
Molly and the kids emerge unscathed from the swamp and hide aboard a boat, unaware it belongs to the kidnappers. Pursued by the police, Grimes runs into the swamp, but falls into deep mud and perishes, while the two criminals flee in the boat. Unable to shake the harbor patrol, they try to slip away in a dinghy, but are run over and drown.
The baby is reunited with her wealthy father, but when she refuses to drink her milk without Molly, Mr. Wayne offers Molly a comfortable home. She accepts only on condition that he take in the other children as well.
Sparrows was Mary Pickford‘s next to last silent role; it was followed by 1927’s My Best Girl. After that, Pickford did some talking pictures before retiring to “Pickfair”, her estate with husband Douglas Fairbanks.[3]
Production
Although William Beaudine received critical acclaim both inside and outside the film industry for his direction, star Mary Pickford felt that he was too cavalier about the safety of the actors, especially in a scene where she had to carry a baby across some water filled with alligators. Pickford wanted to use a doll, but Beaudine insisted on using a real baby, since the alligators’ jaws were bound shut. However, Hal Mohr, the film’s director of photography., debunked this story, saying “There wasn’t an alligator within ten miles of Miss Pickford,” and revealing in precise detail how the effect was done.[3] Regardless, Pickford swore that Beaudine would never work for her or her company as long as she lived. She was as good as her word, as Beaudine never worked for her or United Artists again. Toward the end of the picture, they clashed so often that Beaudine developed a serious paralysis of his face from the pressure and aggravation. He finally turned the picture over to his assistant, Tom McNamara, and left the set. McNamara finished the picture uncredited.
Art director Harry Oliver transformed 3 acres (12,000 m2) of the back lot between Willoughby Avenue and Alta Vista Street into a stylized Gothic swamp. The ground was scraped bare in places, 600 trees were carted in, and pits dug and filled with a mixture of burned cork, sawdust and muddy water.
Filming began in July, over summer vacation. The children had the run of the set, barefoot and in costume, so they would become accustomed to the environment. Each child had a crew member assigned to fish them out of the gunk. These assistants also made sure the kids were cleaned up and comfortable with warm towels when they emerged from the swampy water.
Pickford developed a great fondness for two-year-old Mary Louise Miller. Pickford, who had no children of her own, even tried to adopt the toddler, but her parents refused.
An earlier version of the “Jesus in the barn” scene was filmed in which the dead baby’s spirit was carried to Heaven by a phosphorescent angel. The scene was rejected in favor of the Jesus take.
Critical reception
The New York Times: “Gustav von Seyffertitz, with a suspicion of Lon Chaney’s penchant for deformity, is emphatically capable as Mr. Grimes. Little as she does, Charlotte Minneau gives an excellent portrait of the cruel and unimaginative Mrs. Grimes. … Although Miss Pickford’s performance is as flawless as ever, it is doubtful whether she served herself well in selecting this special screen story, in which there is an abundance of exaggerated suspense and a number of puerile ideas. It is an obvious heartstring tugger during most of its length, and it frequently dallies with the thrills of old fashioned melodramas.”
Motion Picture Magazine, December 1925: “It was Douglas Fairbanks who told us that Mary Pickford’s production of “Sparrows” was Dickensonian. And after seeing it we have nothing less and nothing more to say of it. Perhaps you know that it is the story of a baby farm . . . with Gustav von Seyffertitz as Grimes, the cruel manager . . . and Mary, as Mollie, who watches over the little boys and girls. Melodrama is interwoven in the story and there is nothing new or startling about the plot. But you won’t realize this until the last lovely close-up of Mary has faded from the screen. Which means, of course, that the story interests you so much that your critical faculty is dulled. We are glad that Mary is not going to continue to play grown-ups parts. So many on the screen can be the grand lady. And no one else that we have ever heard about or seen captures the elusive and misty quality of childhood as Mary does. You’ll weep a little. You’ll laugh a great deal. And you’ll hold your breath once or twice.”
Picture Play, January, 1927: “The choice of “Sparrows” was a singular one for Mary Pickford to make, but no one can deny that she has done the picture surpassingly well. The subject is gloomy, and some of the horrors recall Dickens, yet the darkness is shot through with many laughs. Indeed, so heavily does the hand of melodrama smite “Sparrows” that the picture passes beyond the bounds of credibility. Thus the spectator relaxes, content to give way to his amazement at Mary’s skill. She is Mama Mollie, a lovely waif in whom the maternal instinct is well, there aren’t words to tell how strong it is, for she mothers eleven woebegone, poverty-stricken children at a baby farm kept by the villainous Grimes in the midst of a Louisiana swamp. A kidnapped baby is thrust by Grimes into the group and the plot gets underway, Mollie’s heroic efforts to keep the baby against the will of Grimes leading her and the entire brood into the deadly swamp. “Sparrows” is well worth seeing.”
Film historian Jeffrey Vance considers Sparrows to be Pickford’s masterpiece. In his program notes for the Giorante del Cinema Muto (also knows as the Pordenone Silent Film Festival,) Vance writes in 2008: “Sparrows is her most fully realized and timeless work of art. The film’s superb performances, gothic production design, and cinematography all serve a suspenseful, emotionally compelling story anchored by a central performance by Pickford herself imbued with pathos, humor, and charm.”[4]
Milestone Film & Video released the Library of Congress restoration of Sparrows to DVD and Blu-ray in 2012 as part of a box set called Rags and Riches: Mary Pickford Collection. The home video version contains an audio commentary track by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta.[7]
Cast: Mary Pickford, Eugene O’Brien, Antonio Maiori, Ernest Torti, Edwin Mordant, Jack Pickford, Edith Shayne, Cesare Gravina
48 min
Poor Little Peppina is a 1916 American silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. The film was in 1916 Mary Pickford‘s longest film to be made. It was soon surpassed by her later films.[1]
Robert Torrens (Edwin Mordant) is a wealthy American, residing in Italy with his wife (Edith Shayne) and only daughter, Lois (Eileen Stewart).[2] Franzoli Soldo (Antonio Maiori) is a mafia chief who pretends to be a butler and is in Torrens’ employ. One day, he drinks too freely of his masters’ wine. Fellow employee Pietro (Ernest Torti) informs Mr. Torrens, who next discharges Soldo.
Soldo wants revenge and kills Pietro. He is caught, however, and is being put on trial for the murder. He is found guilty and sentenced to a life in jail. One month later, a mafia member helps him escape. He is determined to take revenge on the Torrens family and kidnaps Lois. When the parents find out, they call the police. Soldo is soon thought of to be the kidnapper, but he ordered some of Torrens’ staff member to convince the parents Lois drowned in an accident.
Meanwhile, Soldo flees to his relatives, including his wife Bianca (Mrs. A. Maiori) – who is ordered to raise Lois as her own – and his son Beppo (Jack Pickford). Lois grows up to be Peppina (Mary Pickford), Beppo’s sister. Soldo decided to meanwhile take refuge in America. Fifteen years later. The Duchess, an American heiress, takes an interest in Peppina and teaches her English.
A man named Bernando wants to marry Peppina and convinces her parents to let him take her hand. Peppina, however, has no desire to be with him and asks the Duchess what to do. She helps her escape overseas and promises her a friend of hers will provide her a home in America. Peppina runs away from home in disguise and dresses up as a boy so nobody will recognize her.
Hugh Carroll (Eugene O’Brien) is on the boat as well and meets Amy, a socialite from New York. Peppina takes refuge in his cabin, but is soon caught by him. He provides her comfort and food and offers her to stay at his cabin for the night. However, he doesn’t know Peppina is actually a girl.
In New York, Soldo finds out the Torrens family will move to New York as well. He thinks he will be rewarded if he brings their daughter back to him and is determined to make some money. He sends his relatives in Italy a letter they should bring Peppina to him. Bianca responds she doesn’t know where Peppina is. Meanwhile, Peppina spots Hugh together with Amy and decides to leave him. In New York, she applies for a job in Soldo’s café.
After a bad experience with Soldo, Peppina becomes a messenger “boy”. When she is taken under arrest, she confesses she is actually a girl. Hugh happens to be a chief at the police station and releases Peppina and orders for Soldo to be taken under arrest. After Soldo arrives at the police station, Peppina realizes he was the one who abducted her as a child. Peppina is now recognized as the Torrens’ kid. Mr. and Mrs. Torrens are soon informed and reunited with their child.
Three years have passed. Peppina, now living in wealth, and Hugh are in love with each other.
Cast: Mary Pickford, Wharton James, Katherine Griffith, Helen Jerome Eddy, George Berrell, Howard Ralston, William Courtleigh
58 min
LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01
Pollyanna is a 1920 American silent melodrama/comedy film starring Mary Pickford, directed by Paul Powell, and based upon Eleanor H. Porter‘s 1913 novel of the same name. It was Pickford’s first motion picture for United Artists. It became a major success and would be regarded as one of Pickford’s most defining pictures. The film grossed $1.1 million (approximately $13,151,000 today).[2]
The film opens in the Ozarks where a distraught Pollyanna (Mary Pickford) is comforting her father the Reverend John Whittier (Wharton James) as he dies. After his death Pollyanna is sent to live on a New Englandplantation with her Victorian Aunt Polly (Katherine Griffith).
Aunt Polly is cold and uncaring to Pollyanna: not picking her up at the station, giving her a sparse room in the attic, and scolding at her every chance she gets. As the days pass Pollyanna’s antics amuse the servants, but not Aunt Polly.
One day while playing on the plantation, Pollyanna gets in trouble with a servant woman and runs to hide in a haystack. There she meets Jimmy Bean (Howard Ralston), an orphan her age. Taking pity on him, Pollyanna is certain eventually Aunt Polly will let him live with them. So she hides him in the cellar. One day Aunt Polly insists in going in the cellar despite Pollyanna’s pleas for fear Jimmy will be discovered. Jimmy is asleep and Pollyanna believes they’re in the clear; until Jimmy starts shouting in his sleep, having a bad dream about turnips chasing and trying to eat him. Pollyanna is amused but Aunt Polly is not. After some pleading, Aunt Polly relents and tells Pollyanna to bring some good quilts for Jimmy.
One day, as Jimmy and Pollyanna play with the other children, they decide to try and steal some apples from a tree belonging to John Pendleton (William Cortleigh). John catches Pollyanna in the act, but forgives her, realizing she is the exact image of her mother, a woman he once loved deeply, but who left him to marry the man who eventually became Pollyanna’s father. He tells Pollyanna this as he shows her a painting of her mother. Meanwhile Jimmy fights his way in, fearing that Pollyanna is in danger. He tries to defend her but finds that everything is normal.
As Pollyanna settles in she seems to bring optimism to those she meets. She is insistent on playing a game her father taught her called ‘The Glad Game’, where one counts the things they are glad for. She visits an old shut-in who is supposedly grateful for nothing. Pollyanna brings along an old blind and deaf friend who plays the accordion. Upon discovering the woman is blind and deaf, the shut-in proclaims her gratitude for still having her sight and hearing.
One day after a fight with Jimmy in which he ‘wishes she would die’, Pollyanna heads into town. She notices a little girl playing in the middle of the road, oblivious to a car coming. Pollyanna leaps in front of the car, throwing the girl to safety, but in the process is hit herself. Jimmy and John both take her back to her Aunt’s place. Aunt Polly becomes frantic and places her in her own lavish bedroom. Realizing the error of her ways, Aunt Polly declares how attached to Pollyanna she is; even giving her a kiss on the forehead, much to Pollyanna’s delight.
LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01
Realizing they could have lost the little girl forever, many succumb to her wishes for them to be happy. John promises to adopt Jimmy the next day. Aunt Polly refuses to call Dr. Tom, (Herbert Prior), who broke her heart years before. Pollyanna pleads to send for him but she refuses, bringing in another doctor. After several days, they discover Pollyanna is paralyzed from the waist down. Pollyanna becomes distraught; however Jimmy comforts her, insisting she play the Glad Game.
Months pass and Pollyanna begins to use a wheelchair. One evening with Aunt Polly, she pleads one last time for her to send for Dr. Tom and Aunt Polly finally relents. With the help of Dr. Tom, Pollyanna is eventually able to walk again.
With the success of her walking comes the realization of her wishes. Aunt Polly reunites romantically with Dr. Tom; and Jimmy is happily living with John. One day she asks for Jimmy and he comes to wheel her around the garden. He gives Pollyanna a ring and promptly runs off out of fear, not realizing Pollyanna is able to walk. She is excited at the ring and happily runs after him.
Pollyanna was shot in and has a copyright year of 1919 but was first released in 1920. It had a budget of $300,000 and grossed $1,1 million worldwide on its first theatrical run.[3][4] It was extremely popular, becoming the role that defined Pickford’s ‘little girl’ movies.[5] Pickford was 27 years old at the time of filming and portrayed a 12-year-old.[6]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
A complete print of Pollyanna is preserved at the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education (The Pickford Corporation also owns the copyright).[8]
Home media
Pollyanna was initially released on VHS in 1996. In 2007, it was released on DVD as part of a silent films collection titled The Golden Age of Silent Films, and later as part of the Mary Pickford Signature Collection in 2008. In 2010, Nostalgia Family Video also released the film on DVD.[9]
Jump up^Balio, Tino (2009). United Artists, Volume 1, 1919–1950: The Company Built by the Stars. 1. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 39. ISBN0-299-23003-1.
Jump up^Fischer, Lucy, ed. (2009). American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations. Rutgers University Press. p. 38. ISBN0-813-54485-8.
Jump up^Forster, Merna (2004). 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Dundurn Press. p. 206. ISBN1-459-71431-8.
Jump up^Kroon, Richard W. (2014). A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms. McFarland. p. 500. ISBN0-786-45740-6.
Cinderella is a kind young woman who lives with her wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters plus her evil father. They abuse her and use her as the house maid. Cinderella thinks she’s all alone in the world, but doesn’t know a fairy godmother is constantly helping her. One day, she is collecting wood from the forest and meets Prince Charming. They immediately fall in love with each other, but lose contact. Soon, a ball is arranged by the prince to look for his future wife. The stepsisters think they make a great chance in being chosen by the prince. Cinderella wants to go as well, but isn’t allowed to by her cruel family.
The sisters go to a fortune teller, who announces a member of the family will be chosen by the prince. The sisters are delighted and think it will be one of the two of them. When they leave for the ball, Cinderella is left behind. The fairy godmother appears and asks if she wants to go to the ball as well. When Cinderella responds positively, the fairy godmother orders her to bring her the biggest pumpkin she can find. Cinderella does so and the fairy godmother changes it into a luxurious stage coach. She next asks for the smallest mice she can find. Cinderella brings her some mice from the house and the fairy godmother changes them into horses.
The fairy godmother next orders her to bring her the biggest rats there are. After Cinderella collected them, the fairy godmother changes them into servants. She finally changes Cinderella’s poor maiden costume into a dress fit for a princess, and glass slippers, of course. She reminds Cinderella she will have to be back at home before the clock strikes midnight. Otherwise, her fine dress will turn into rags and the coach and servants will become what they were before.
As Cinderella arrives at the party, Prince Charming is already busy looking for his future wife. It is soon announced an unknown lady has arrived in a coach. Prince Charming immediately chooses her and they go to a private place where they learn to know each other. As they flirt, Cinderella notices it is almost twelve o’clock and storms out. She loses her glass slipper, before she turns into her old poor self again.
The next day, the royal heralds announce the Prince’s wish to marry the woman whose foot fits the lost glass slipper. The sisters go to the palace to try fit their feet into the slippers, while Cinderella is yet again forced to stay home. It becomes clear the royal heralds every woman of the town has tried but failed to wear the slippers, except for Cinderella. Prince Charming immediately goes to visit her and is shocked when he finds out she is a poor maid. He doesn’t turn his back against her, though, and he invites her to try on the slipper. When she does, she is announced as the future princess. The royal heralds give her the opportunity to behead her sisters, but she refuses to.
In the final scene, the fairy godmother appears and blesses her. Cinderella and Prince Charming live happily ever after.
Leading actress Pickford’s previous film Little Lord Fauntleroy flopped critically. Pickford realized she had to make a movie the audience loved to see her in.[1] She wanted to play the role again, because she loved the character and stated the crew had more abilities with a bigger budget and better technology.[2]
17-year-old Tess Skinner is the daughter of a squatter, and wealthy man Elias Graves, who owns the land, is trying to get rid of them and the other squatter families. Tess is just as determined to make sure they all stay. Elias, however, grows more stubborn with failure. His determination to disperse the squatters has become an obsession. He is determined to kick them out of his land, not caring they don’t have another place to go to. Graves’ son, Frederick, is on her side and doesn’t think about squatters the way his father does. Frederick’s sister Teola fears her father, who thinks obedience is more important than love. She has fallen in love with law student Dan Jordan, but he hasn’t been able to impress Elias.
Dan tries to win over Teola’s father’s trust in him by suggesting he can throw the squatters off his land, because they are catching fish illegally. Frederick, meanwhile, is charmed by Tess and admits he could really fall for her if she would get cleaned up. When men come to the Skinner residence to find proof they’re netting, Tess hides the evidence her father is a fisherman. Later, they become hungry and Tess’ father decides to start fishing again. He is caught and when Dan Jordan is shot to death, Tess’ dad is blamed for it and taken under arrest. Tess is crushed and takes it out on Elias when he announces he will do anything for her dad to pay the penalty. When the trial starts, Tess is crushed she isn’t allowed to visit her father. The evil Ben Letts forces himself up to her as her future husband, despite the fact Tess is unwilling to marry him. She chases him away, but Ben vows vengeance.
Now that Tess is all alone, Frederick keeps her company and they fall in love. Elias finds out and tells Fred he doesn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. Frederick announces he is planning on marrying Tess as soon as he finishes college. Meanwhile, Teola finds out she is pregnant and already started planning to marry Dan, but now that he’s dead, the child will be born out of wedlock. She plans on killing herself, but doesn’t have the nerve to. Tess protects her by claiming the child as her own. After the baby is born, Teola keeps on supporting her financially. One night, Teola isn’t allowed to leave the house, so Tess breaks in to get milk for the baby. She is caught by Elias, who is outraged. Meanwhile, Fred has just returned from college. Ben’s mate threatens him to tell the truth about Ben having killed Dan Jordan. Ben becomes mad and strangles him. He next hides the body.
Fred pays Tess a visit and finds his sister there as well. When he notices the baby, Tess tells him she found it. Fred doesn’t believe her and thinks the baby is hers. He is shocked and ashamed and leaves immediately. Meanwhile, Ben fears of getting caught and plans on leaving town. He is determined to take Tess with him. He sneaks into her cottage and notices the baby. When Tess comes in, he forces her to marry him. She refuses to, but Fred comes in to rescue her. They together hit Ben unconscious, but Fred leaves bitterly as he is still shocked about Tess having a baby. Ben’s strangled mate meanwhile survived and announces Ben Letts is responsible for the killing of Dan.
Tess is ostracized and the dying infant is refused baptism, so Tess sneaks into the church and does her own ritual. Teola and Elias are both in presence. Elias demands for her to be thrown out of church, but Teola becomes too emotional and admits the baby is hers. Elias is shocked but forgives her, but Teola soon dies. Fred realizes he has made an awful mistake, but Tess isn’t able to forgive his horrible treatment towards her. She goes back home and reunites with her father, who has just been released from jail. Elias and Fred later stop by to apologize. Both Elias and Fred are forgiven and the film ends with Tess and Fred kissing.
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.
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]
Cast: Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks, Frank McGlynn Sr., Emilie La Croix, Marcia Harris, Charles Craig, Frank Andrews
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: Mary Pickford, Harold Goodwin, Allan Sears, Fred Huntley, Claire McDowell, Sam De Grasse
87 min
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
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.
Film Dialogue 
You must be logged in to post a comment.