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Little Annie Rooney (1925)

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Little Annie Rooney (1925)

Director: William Beaudine

Cast: Mary Pickford, Willaim Haines, Walter James, Gordon Griffith, Carlo Schipa, Spec O’Donnell, Hugh Fay, Vola Vale, Joe Butterworth, Eugene Jackson, Oscar Rudolph, Bernard Berger, Francis X Bushman Jr. (uncredited), Charles K French (uncredited)

94 min

LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY, Mary Pickford, 1925.

Little Annie Rooney 4

LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY, Mary Pickford, 1925.

 

 

 

Little Annie Rooney is a 1925 American silent comedy-drama film starring Mary Pickford and directed by William Beaudine. Pickford, one of the most successful actresses of the silent era, was best known throughout her career for her iconic portrayals of penniless young girls. After generating only modest box office revenue playing adults in her previous two films, Pickford wrote and produced Little Annie Rooney to cater to silent film audiences. Though she was 33 years old, Pickford played the title role, an Irish girl living in the slums of New York City.

The film was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the highest grossing films of 1925. Restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014, Little Annie Rooney is remembered today for Pickford’s performance and the high quality associated with its production.

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Plot

Annie Rooney is a young girl who spends her days wreaking havoc in the tenements with a gang of children and their rival gang, the Kid Kellys. They fight in the streets, accidentally scaring a fruit vendor’s horse in the process. Annie’s father is a respected neighborhood police officer, but her brother, Tim, is a member of the Big Kellys, a gang of older boys led by Joe Kelly. The gang raises money for themselves by selling tickets to an upcoming dance.

Joe is kind to Annie and she develops a crush on him. But when Joe visits the Rooney home later that day, Officer Rooney warns him that if he continues to lead his gang, he will no longer allow Tim to spend time with Joe.

The fruit vendor arrives and informs Officer Rooney that Annie’s activities that morning cost him five dollars’ worth of fresh fruit. When each of the children claim responsibility for scaring the horse, Officer Rooney decides that they will all have to repay the fruit vendor together.

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The children decide to raise funds by staging a play set in the Wild West. Prompted by teasing from a heckler, Annie attempts to ride the same horse that the children had scared earlier, but it is spooked once again and gallops through the city with Annie on its back. Joe spots Annie and manages to catch her when she falls. When the fruit vendor catches up with them, Joe pays him back with five dollars’ worth of tickets to the dance.

The night of the dance is also Officer Rooney’s birthday; he is on patrol outside the dance hall. Back at home, Tim and Annie are preparing for their father’s return. At the dance, a fight breaks out between Joe and two of his fellow gang members, Tony and Spider. The lights in the dance hall are switched off, attracting the attention of Officer Rooney, who ventures inside. Tony fires a gun, but the bullet meant for Joe hits Officer Rooney instead, killing him.

A week passes. The police still haven’t discovered Officer Rooney’s killer. Tony and Spider lie to Tim, telling him that Joe killed Officer Rooney. Tim intends to take revenge himself.

Meanwhile, Annie is told that Tony was seen discarding a gun in an alley. Members of the Kid Kellys begin to suspect Tony as well. The rival gangs unite and manage to bring Tony to the police station, but Tim arrives shortly after them and announces that he has just shot Joe.

Annie rushes to the hospital and learns that Joe will die unless he is given an immediate blood transfusion. Annie volunteers, though she mistakenly believes that she will die as a result. She is tested and donates her blood. After the procedure, Annie learns that she is not going to die, and she states her intention to marry Joe one day.

Later, Joe drives Annie and her friends through town. Tim, now a traffic officer, waves them through the intersection.

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Cast

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Production

“America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford had built a successful career playing young ragamuffins, but she was interested in playing roles that were more appropriate for her age.[1] Pickford was perhaps the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time, and as one of the founders of United Artists, she was able to produce and star in films like Rosita and Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall. But audiences were still clamoring for her to return to screens as the “girl with the curls.” In a 1925 interview with Photoplay magazine, Pickford asked her fans what roles they would like to see her play; Photoplay received 20,000 letters in reply urging Pickford to portray children, with suggestions including Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, and Alice in Wonderland.[2] Despite being 33 years old, Pickford acquiesced to her public, once again stepping into the role of a young girl for Little Annie Rooney.[3]

The idea for the film’s subject – a tough Irish girl from the streets – came to Pickford as she was wandering through a vacant city set on a Hollywood backlot. Seeking advice from a distinctly Irish-American perspective, she called Mabel Normand, who simply suggested, “I’d get an Irish title… and write something to go with it.”[4]

Pickford selected the hit music hall song “Little Annie Rooney” as the basis for her character. The song is referenced twice in the movie’s intertitles; written in 1889 but now largely forgotten, it was very popular at the time, also inspiring a comic strip and an animated short film. Pickford wrote the story herself, but is credited under the name of her Irish grandmother, Catherine Hennessey.[5]

To help realize her story, Pickford hired some of the top-tier talent of the day: husband-and-wife screenwriting team Hope Loring and Louis Lighton, who also wrote Wings and It, adapted the story for the screen; Charles Rosher, who would later win an Academy Award for Sunrise, served as the film’s cinematographer; William Beaudine, who had found much success working with children in films like Boy of Mine and Penrod and Sam, was chosen by Pickford to direct.[5]

Little Annie Rooney probably owes a debt to the Our Gang franchise for its comedic cast of multi-ethnic children (including Irish, Greek, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, and African-American characters), but Little Annie Rooney takes place in a far grittier urban setting. One of the advertisements for the film identifies Annie as “the Princess of the Bowery,” an area home to many immigrant populations at the time and known as the skid row of New York through the 1970s.[6] An enormous set filled with realistic details was constructed in the Pickford-Fairbanks backlot to simulate the impoverished downtown neighborhood.[7]

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Legacy

Pickford’s return as a scruffy young girl in Little Annie Rooney was a critical success as well as a triumph at the box office, becoming one of the highest grossing films of 1925. This film was a particular achievement for Pickford after the lukewarm reception for her last two starring efforts.[8][9] Pickford biographer Eileen Whitfield wrote, “One watches in amazement as Pickford, at thirty-three, fresh from the seductions of Rosita and the stiff declamations of Dorothy Vernon, slips into the body of a twelve-year-old tomboy.”[10]

Little Annie Rooney was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2014 from Pickford’s personal 35mm tinted nitrate print and contains longer scenes, different camera set-ups, and better shots of Mary Pickford as well as special tinting effects not seen in any previously available versions.[11] This restoration, with a new score composed by Andy Gladbach, has been presented at college campuses, by the American Cinematheque at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual “Mary Pickford Celebration of Silent Film”, and on Turner Classic Movies.[12][13][14][15]

Writing in his program notes for the restoration’s premiere, Jeffrey Vance observed: “Little Annie Rooney has always been overshadowed by the films that have chronologically surrounded it. The Academy Film Archive’s restoration of Little Annie Rooney reveals the work to be one of her most accomplished efforts and a fine introduction to the art of Mary Pickford.”[14]

Kevin Brownlow wrote of the film, “when you think that it was all shot on the Pickford-Fairbanks backlot… it is all the more remarkable… All the artistry, technical skill, and emotional impact of a medium only thirty years old shine triumphantly through.”[7]

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References

  1. Jump up^ “The Pickford Waif”. MaryPickford.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  2. Jump up^ Leavey, Peggy Dymond (2011). Mary Pickford: Canada’s Silent Siren, America’s Sweetheart. Toronto: Dundurn.
  3. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney: Mary Pickford’s return to childhood, newly restored”. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  4. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney”. Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Bronlow, Kevin (1999). Mary Pickford Rediscovered: Rare Pictures of a Hollywood Legend. New York: Abrams.
  6. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney (1925)”, IMDb, retrieved 2015-08-02
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b “The Costume of Silent Drama: Mary Pickford and Little Annie Rooney”. Oscars.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  8. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney”. Variety. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  9. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney (1925)”. New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  10. Jump up^ Whitfield, Eileen (1997). Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross.
  11. Jump up^ “The Academy, Mary Pickford Foundation Present Restoration World Premiere of “Little Annie Rooney””. Oscars.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  12. Jump up^ “Special Screening: Mary Pickford’s splendidly restored Little Annie Rooney”. UCLA Graduate Students Association. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  13. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney”. American Cinematheque. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Vance, Jeffrey (2014). “Little Annie Rooney” program notes. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mary Pickford Celebration of Silent Film. Bing Theater program book.
  15. Jump up^ “Little Annie Rooney on Turner Classic Movies”. MaryPickford.org. Retrieved 4 October 2016.

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Cinematheque Live, Home

Sparrows 1926

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Mary Pickford Season: FD Cinematheque

Sparrows 1926

Dir: William Beaudine and Tom McNamara

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

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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]

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Plot

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.

Cast

  • Children:
    • Billy Butts
    • Jack Lavine
    • Billy “Red” Jones
    • Muriel McCormac
    • Florence Rogan
    • Mary McLain
    • Sylvia Bernard
    • Seesel Ann Johnson
    • Camille Johnson

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Cast notes:

  • 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.

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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.”

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  • 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]

Accolades

Home Video

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]

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References

Notes

  1. Jump up^ Wood, Bret “Sparrows (1926)” (article) TCM.com
  2. Jump up^ Mankiewicz, Ben. Intro to Turner Classic Movies presentation ofSparrows (May 5, 2010)
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Landazuri, Margarita. “Sparrows (1926)” (article) TCM.com
  4. Jump up^ Vance, Jeffrey. “Sparrows” Le Giornate del Cinema Muto/27th Pordenone Silent Film Festival program book, October 4, 2008 http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/ed_precedenti/edizione2008/Catalogo2008.pdf
  5. Jump up^ “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains Nominees” (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  6. Jump up^ “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers Nominees” (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  7. Jump up^ http://milestonefilms.com/collections/hollywood-classics/products/sparrows

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