Product Details

• Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jean Firstenberg, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Cammilla Johnson
• Directors: Hugh Munro Neely
• Writers: Rita Mae Brown
• Producers: Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Hugh Munro Neely, Edward Stotsenberg, Elaina Archer, Hugh M. Hefner
• Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• 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: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005M2CG
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,429 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Mary Pickford - A Life on Film" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

By the age of seventeen, Mary Pickford had become the first actress to achieve international superstardom. By the time she was thirty, she was the first and only woman ever to own a major movie studio, the only woman to be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and the first actress to have complete control in making her films. With comedic talents equal to Keaton, Lloyd or Chaplin, the tragic range of Gish and Swanson and business acumen to rival any Hollywood mogul, Mary Pickford was the consummate movie star of the 20th Century. "Mary Pickford: A Life on Film" is the definitive documentary on the most powerful woman in the history of cinema. Hosted and narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as detailed as I thought it would be..., March 21, 2003

By	Silent Girl "S-Girl" (Ontario) - See all my reviews

For an Image Entertainment production, I thought this biography of Mary Pickford would have been much meatier than it actually was. Overall, this biography gives a pretty good outline of Mary Pickford's life. One thing that annoyed me about the film was how they kept referring to Mary as being American; she was a CANADIAN from Toronto and during her middle age she was concerned about losing her Canadian citizenship and renewed it in honour of her parents who were Canadians. CBC did a Pickford documentary as part of their Life and Times series which was very good and only an hour long. I wish CBC would release their documentary on DVD.

They should have included commentary from Eileen Whitfield who wrote a wonderful biography of Pickford in 1997: "Pickford: the Woman Who Made Hollywood". Since Whitfield spent many years doing research for this book, I think she would have been able to give better insight into Mary than someone like Leonard Maltin and the other people who had commentaries in this documentary.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pickford Program Perfection minus 1 * !, May 4, 2005

By	Lori Ann (California United States) - See all my reviews

If you have never seen Pickford in action, this is the biography to watch for it is chock full of short footage of the incomparable Mary doing her screen antics. Displaying scenes from her rare unseen silents & talkies, "A Life on Film" made me want to go out searching for Pickford reels to spin for myself. I especially love the scenes of Mary from "Cinderella," "Rosita" (A rare Lubitsch classic) and "Hoodlum!" not to mention "Secrets" which is a Pickford's last talkie. Another thing I love is the home movie footage of Pickford, Chaplin and Douglas. I gave it Minus 1 * because the menu is sparse and there is no extras included. I would have liked a Pickford "Biograph" short to be included or a feature just to wet the appetite of the viewer more but oh well . . . (NOTE TO MILESTONE: Keep those Pickford Pictures coming!!)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Biography, May 9, 2008

By	30307 "30307" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

Pickford is a fascinating woman. I could explore all of her many gifts, but recommend you watch this film for that. I am writing because I watched this and another recent documentary concerning Mary Pickford within a one-week period. Both documentaries were fascinating, but, in the end, I found this particular film to be much more compassionate toward the aging Mary Pickford. Had I based my opinion of Mary Pickford on the other documentary, and not seen this film, I would have perceived Mary Pickford as being a pathetic has-been in her later years. It seemed that the other documentary portrayed Pickford's life as being "washed up" after the 1930's. The film carried an air of cattiness toward the aging Pickford. So I was surprised to learn, while watching this film, of Pickford's kindness and contribution in her later years and to see with my own eyes that, yes, Pickford grew to be even more beautiful as she aged. She had her issues, true, but her life didn't exactly end in the 1930's --- not according to this documentary, anyway.

I enjoy biographical interpretations, but, at the same time, am wary of them. We love to tell stories about other people but, too often, our own inner life and opinions are projected out on the very people we tell stories about. It's hard to know what is truth. Having said that, this documentary was kinder to Pickford, and the world needs more of that. Five stars.