While Mary Pickford’s audience clamored for teen portraits, she was really at her considerable best when her characters were allowed to hit young adulthood. This 1921 pic (with wastrel brother Jack listed as co-director alongside proficient Al Green, but don’t you believe it) has two memorable teenage bits (Mary mops the floor using brushes as skates, and a superb encounter with a stubborn mule). But it really takes off when Mary grows up and hits the Belgium road on her way to find her long-lost Mom in America; picks up two orphans; meets the rich parents who had deserted her; stops a secretly married gold-digging couple from fleecing them; and discovers tru-love with a society boy who only knows her as a maid. Whew! All that, plus a surprise precursor of Chaplin’s famous drive-by finale in A WOMAN OF PARIS/’23. (Adolph Menjou stars in both pics so it ain't no coincidence.) Plus, a first-rate Robert Israel score on the official Pickford Estate-approved DVD.
No comments:
Post a Comment