Product Details

• Actors: Laura Linney, Tino Balio, Jeanine Basinger, David Belasco, Malcolm Boyd
• Directors: Sue Williams
• Writers: Sue Williams
• Producers: Sue Williams, Judith Vecchione, Kathryn Pierce Dietz, Malinda Campbell, Mark Samels
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Pbs (Direct)
• DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000A6T1JA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,315 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Mary Pickford" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It was the golden age of silent film, and she was the world's most celebrated actress. Known as America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford was famous for playing darling girls and feisty young women in wildly popular films seen around the globe. Her love affair with Hollywood's leading man, Douglas Fairbanks, turned her into an icon of glamour and romance, the Hollywood dream come true. But, as Mary would learn in the most painful way, fame is fickle and life at the top is precarious.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An OK Documentary, November 25, 2005

By	Samantha Kelley "Maliejandra" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This DVD is the PBS Special about Mary Pickford, part of the American Masters series. Mary Pickford was the most popular actress of the early 1900s. Before the public knew actress' names, they dubbed her "The Girl With the Golden Curls" and "America's Sweetheart." She was the first woman to make a million dollars in a year and she was a pioneer in films. She is credited for creating acting for the camera, or realistic acting. Her film career spanned from the 1900s until the 1930s when she made her last screen appearance. Even afterward she kept up with business in her studio United Artists and was a producer and remained a household name.

This documentary features commentary by many of Mary's biographers and film historians including Eileen Whitfield, Scott Eyman, Jeanine Basinger, and Kevin Brownlow.

It is filled with rare photographs and some film clips from some of the more rare Pickford films including many Biograph shorts, the first Tess of the Storm Country, and Poor Little Rich Girl. However, it does skip over quite a few of Mary's films including those silents made after Little Annie Rooney even though the last, My Best Girl, is mentioned later.

The music used is very sad throughout which creates a dismal feeling for the audience. This is unfortunate because even though Mary went through tragedy and sadness especially in her later years, much of her life was happy and she was a very positive person.

This is by no means the best documentary available about Pickford's life, but no perfect documentary exists. For further information or explanation of Mary's life, one might try Mary Pickford: A Life on Film released by Milestone, but even it is not perfect. Neither mention Mary's writing or go into great depth about her relationship with her brother or sister or her sister's daughter Gwynne who lived with Mary. However, this documentary is adequate.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice documentary on Hollywood's first female star, February 23, 2008

By	Nicoletta Carlone "Nicoletta Carlone" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

I have seen this documentary twice, first on PBS, and then on DVD. Mary Pickford's life was one that was both remarkable, beautiful and tragic. She came from a very poor back round working class family and managed through plays, and then movies to become Hollywood's first starlet. She also was a very feisty business woman and started her own distributing company, United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. After a failed marrige, her married Douglas Fairbanks, and for a while then had a fairytale hollywood romance. Her life also had much tragedy after the loss of her mother, her divorce from her husband, and reliezing loosing her career due to her aging and became almost a recluse until her death. The documentary is well down, but there is a sort of gloomy,depressing quality to it, even when the documentary is talking about the happy times of her career. The music through out is very sad. I would have liked to see more of her happy times show as happy, and the sad parts shown as sad, this would have given more contrast to the film. Over all though, a very good documentary about an extrodinary woman.