Customer Reviews

Coquette [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

How odd it is that this movie is directed by Sam Taylor. Who knew he'd be able to direct a drama of this manner? Every film I've seen by him has been a comedy. He directed Harold Lloyd in "Safety Last" & "Hot Water" and Laurel & Hardy in "Nothing But Trouble". And now here he is directing "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford (Pollyanna).

Now given the fact that a majority of people I'm willing to bet are not entirely familiar with Pickford this is such a rare movie to find that I'm sure if you've heard of this movie you must know who she is, so there's no need to inform you about her life.

Pickford plays a coquette named Norma who says she loves Michael Jeffery (John Mack Brown) but still, for awhile, flirts with Stanley (Matt Moore). But sadly for Norma and Michael, Michael is not in the same social rank, and her father would never permit his daughter to marry him let alone see him ever again (sounds pretty original doesn't it lol).

"Coquette" was Pickford's first "talkie" and despite what some may say I think she does a pretty good job. She seems comfortable, though I'm sure everyone on the set was a bit neverous, she still seems to pull off her role. She does make the mistake most actors\actresses have made in early "talkies" where they feel if they scream they are projecting strong emotions. Sort of the way singers scream and the audience goes into a frenzy.

"Coquette" has some real great moments in the middle and throughout. Pickford and cast are really laying it on. And while I bet a lot of people think the scenes may be campy, first of all lets remember one big factor here. It's 1929! What were you expecting? Personally I didn't find the movie campy but sincere. The film's last two major scenes are done quite well and the final scene is a bit of a heartbreaker.

Pickford is going to be the reason a lot of people would chose to see this movie. First of all because it's her first "talkie" and because she won an Academy Award for her role. But, while Pickford is good I thought Matt Moore as Stanley was the most effective actor in the movie. Where Pickford screams he remains silent. And his silence speaks volumes more then her screaming. His restraint is a plus. What happened to him after this movie?

Now if Pickford and Moore are the best than William Janney as Pickford's brother Jimmy is the worst. He hams it up. And has some of the film's worst dialogue. I wonder if it was done on purpose?

Mary Pickford once said "I never liked one of my pictures in its entirety." what a shame. Because "Coquette" really is a knockout. It's one of those great sappy melodramas that were coming out of Hollywood in the 30's, films such as "The Champ", "Possessed" (1931 version), and "Paid" (sadly not available on vhs or dvd).

Bottom-line: Very effective Mary Pickford vehicle that won her an Oscar. Has plenty of great melodramatic moments near the end and some strong performances (Pickford, Moore). Fans of B&W Hollywood movies and filmbuffs should enjoy.

Despite the reviews this film has had and continues to have by reviewers who refuse to see it for what it is, Mary Pickford's first talkie, Coquette, is an engaging film. It should not be compared to the silents Pickford made when she was at her peak, as it is a distinctly different style of film. It was made at a time when Pickford's career was beginning to fade and should be viewed as a fading star's attempt to stay in competition with younger starlets.
Pickford's film is of course a hybrid and often when people cannot categorise a film, it is criticised. It does suffer in comparison to Pickford's glorious silents and other films made at the heights of the sound era because it is not a skillful example of either.
Coquette needs to be recognised as an experiment. People who were adept at making silent films were experimenting with sound. As a direct result, you will notice actors remaing where there is an unseen microphone or the diction will not be crystal clear but this is not a failing. It is indicative of a film made using early sound technology.
Pickford herself, glows. She speaks with a charming voice. The actor who does not come off as well is Johnny Mack Brown, whose high voice tends to drone and thus sounds very odd. The costumes and sets are pleasing to the eye and generally the acting is appropriate for the vehicle. Pickford's acting has a tendency to be melodramatic at times but again, this is the result of a lifetime of acting in silent film, not withstanding her early stage experience.
My recommendation is that if you are a Pickford fan, you should watch Coquette for interest without being intent on noticing its failings but observe its idiosyncracies within its time and purpose.
No doubt had Pickford had time to refine her acting in talkies, she would have emerged as a skilled actress for this new medium. Unfortunately, she did not have time at her disposal as her fans were passing her by. Coquette, therefore is an experiment at producing a sound film in a period where every person in the film industry had developed their skills in silent films. The silent film industry would soon be obsolete and Mary Pickford is to be praised for her foresight in venturing to make a sound film when many silent stars were clinging desperately to the silent medium.

Mary Pickford is excellent in this movie and well-deserved her Academy Award. It is admittedly a stiff early talkie but Miss Pickford is such a natural actress she overcomes these problems and gives a fine performance as a smalltown flirt whose life is turned upside down by her possessive father. The story is melodramatic but seems very much of the type that Tennessee Williams later wrote to much acclaim on Broadway. You may quibble about the late 30's Pickford playing an ingenue but she looks youthful and has several stunning dramatic moments, made all the more notable by the fact that just a year or two before the public at large thought of her as a little girl.

In a tribute to her acting ability, 36 year-old Pickford plays Norma Besant, a flirtatious twenty-something Southern flapper who falls hard for Michael Jeffery. Dire consequences arise due to her father's intense disdain for the young man...Mary Pickford was an institution during the silent period when she was known as "America's Sweetheart". Pickford tired of her goody-goody personna in pictures and after her mother Charlotte died in 1928, she had her legendary curls bobbed and announced to the fan magazines that she wanted to be "dressed in smart clothes and play the lover". The same year this turkey was made (1929) Pickford and her then-husband Douglas Fairbanks played in a politely well-received - but fairly ludicrous - version of Shakespeare's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. In 1931, Pickford resurrected an old Norma Talmadge silent vehicle - which co-starred Ronald Colman - entitled KIKI: it was a flop. In 1933, at the milestone age of 40, Mary made her movie swan song performance in SECRETS, a fairly well-acted drama which co-starred 40 year-old Leslie Howard. COQUETTE was based upon an original play by George Abbott and Ann Preston, which was written for Helen Hayes. This photoplay adaptation is a creaky drama that served to introduce the previously silent Pickford to the talkies. Surprisingly, she beat out Jeanne Eagels for the Best Actress AA for 1929 (The ailing heroin-addicted Eagels - she would die later that year - was nominated for her performance as Leslie Crosbie in Maugham's THE LETTER). In all honesty, Pickford had a lovely voice - something which was in short supply among silent stars making their transition into the talkies - but her performance is hardly Oscar-worthy.

Well, each to his own taste, but now that many of Pickford's best silents are out on video, it would be a shame to start with such an atypical role. This was a stage success for Helen Hayes, and probably Pickford copies her fairly well, but it's an ordinary Suth'n melodrama, produced at a typically glacial 1929 pace, and playing a bad girl of good family isn't what Pickford specialized in-- or ought to be remembered for. Check out Suds, Sparrows, My Best Girl, or any of the other silents in which she plays a delightfully spunky and mischievous young girl instead.

I love Mary Pickford but I guess I like her better in romantic comedies and comedies. The sound isn't that great, it's her first talkie. It's nice to hear her voice but it's too melodramatic for me. I miss her long curls too.

That's why I'm elated to find this newly released collection Mary Pickford Signature Collection which has 4 films for $4.

This film won Mary Pickford the second Oscar for Best Actress ever awarded, and was one of the more controversial decisions ever made by the Academy for that particular award. When Pickford made this film, she was already 36 but was playing a girl who was approximately 20. However, her tiny size and petite features prevented her from looking ridiculous. Pickford plays Norma Besant, daughter of Dr. John Besant, a southern belle of the flapper era known as a "coquette" - in modern terms, a flirt. Her lack of affection for her numerous suitors does not prevent her from accepting their gifts and leading them on, but her heart truly only belongs to Michael Jeffery, a "man from the hills". This is a polite term for what southern rural society in those days would call white trash. The two want to get married, but Dr. Besant, being a noble southern doctor of that era, holds dear several unnegotiable rules of behavior - defending one's honor seems to require lots of gunplay, never allow blacks in the house unless they're serving you dinner or cleaning your house, and poor white people - such as Norma's suitor - should be neither seen nor heard. Thus when the young man performs the bold act of coming to his house to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage and mentions that they have been alone together the night before - though they were only talking about their future plans - Norma's father follows after Mike and shoots him down in cold blood. What follows is Pickford's best scene. When she hears Mike has been mortally wounded by her father, she rushes to his bedside just in time to see him die. In shock, she keeps trying to tend to him, at first refusing to believe he is dead. Her brother, one of her suitors, and an old family friend convince her Mike is gone. Now, they say, she must concentrate on saving her father from the gallows. They tell her she must lie and say Mike forced himself on her and that her father was doing the noble thing. I guess lying was considered OK in the code of the old south if the victim is "just a man from the hills". Norma understandably refuses, saying that if her father hangs it is what he deserves.

Months pass, and the trial is in progress. Norma has forgiven her father, and here, unlike Mike's deathbed, her attitude is just bizarre. She acts as though her father has done little more than take away her cell phone priveleges - to put it in modern terms - rather than kill the only man she ever loved. She is now ready to go on the witness stand and lie about Mike's character - which by everyone else's account was noble and hard working - in order to free her extremey guilty father. However, it does indeed tear up Norma's conscience to say untrue things about her deceased beau, and she breaks down on the stand. At that moment, her father has a moment of clarity, goes to her, and tells her he was wrong to do what he did, and the two reconcile. He then grabs the gun that is lying as evidence on a nearby table and shoots himself, declaring that he owes his life to the state for his actions. End of story.

Pickford's performance viewed today appears merely mediocre compared those of other early talkie actresses. You have to remember though, seeing America's Sweetheart talk for the first time was for the audiences of 1929 like seeing and hearing that T-Rex in Jurassic Park in 1993 - it's easy to confuse a technological milestone with a great performance, at least until the novelty wears off. What was interesting for me was to see the "code of the South" in its death throes. The attitudes of the upper class toward even the hard-working members of the poorer classes in the south were about to collapse when the Great Depression made poor people out of so many of the so-called nobility and put them all in the same crowded, uncomfortable boat.

There is no doubt that Mary Pickford is one of America's all time greatest and most beloved actresses. That doesn't mean she was exempted from mistakes, though. This movie is awful all the way through. It's boring, paceless an has the stiffest acting imaginable. Mary was especially nervous in her performance and I don't think that's because it was her first talking film. The problem is that she's playing completely against type. The sweet, lovable, smart and spunky little girl persona that she had perfected is gone and in it's place is the consummate man - controlling flapper. Sorry Mary, it just doesn't work.

If you want to know why Mary Pickford was one of the best actresses of all time...don't judge her work on this movie. I had a hard time watching it all the way through. I kept thinking it'd get better. I think Mary even won an Academy Award for this one, although I don't know how, unless they were basically honoring her lifetime achievements. This movie definately did not stand the test of time.