Customer Reviews

Mary Pickford Signature Collection: Pollyanna, Poor Little Rich Girl, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Annie Rooney

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This very inexpensive single disc DVD features four essential Mary Pickford films POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1917), REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1917), POLLYANNA (1920), and LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY (1925). Print quality is fair to good, ANNIE's print is very good. This set is a great bargain and the 1917 titles are fairly rare so this is a must for any Pickford or silent movie fan. However, the musical score for three of the films is a carousel-like organ piano that is often inappropiate for the scenes in the movie, for example it happily pipes away during the segment of one film in which Mary is informed of the death of her father!! You might want to turn off the sound. This was done by a budget company so don't expect the quality of the pricier titles authorized by the Pickford estate by Image but still it's very nice to see this set on the market, one of the few silent "budget" dvd sets out there other than Chaplin or Keaton titles. The "bonus feature" is a nice collection of Pickford images including movie posters. At only a dollar a movie, you could hardly quibble about this collection and I'm happy to own a copy of it.

Nice selection of Pickford films.

Be aware that these films are also included in the "Silent Cinema 3 disc collection" so, if you buy that one, don't make the same mistake I did and buy this one as well.

These films are really sweet and give an excellent opportunity to see "America's sweetheart" in four of her most famous "little girl" roles. While it is lovely to have any access at all to these films, the transfers are definitely in the budget range. If you can pick this up for $4 or $5, then go for it, but don't expect more than a hint of what the films were really like. And definitely do NOT use these transfers as a model for what silent film is like--it would kill the love before it got started. The maddening calliope music for 3 of the 4 films is wretched: it is much better to turn off the sound and play different background music. Indeed, one is just as well off to head over to the Internet Archive and watch them for free--the quality there, poor as it is, is pretty much the same as on these disks.

What a value! Nice collection too... if you like Mary Pickford, be sure to check out My Best Girl it's one of my faves and her 3rd husband's in it :)

(I'm a fan of Charles "Buddy" Rogers too)

This is a collection of well-known then, but probably not now, books put into a movie format. Mary Pickford plays the heroine of each of the books. There have been updates of the kind of book she portrays, the most recent being Anne of Green Gables in the 80's, but these are much older and more consistent with that period.

Canadian-born Mary Pickford was a pioneering film maker. Known as "Little Mary" and "America's Sweetheart," Pickford had her own production company and later was a founding member of UNITED ARTISTS, along with husband Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin and D.W. Griffith.

SYNOPSES--

LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY-- The boyfriend of a tenement-dwelling girl shoots and kills her police officer father; her brother seeks revenge for the murder. Co-star William Haines was fired by Louis B. Mayer in the 1930s because he refused to end his gay relationship and marry a woman.

POLLYANNA-- Feel-good tale of an orphan girl sent to live with her grumpy old aunt in a town full of grumpier old New Englanders. Her inexhaustible sunny optimism eventually wins them all over. Based on the Eleanor Porter novel.

POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL-- Life is tough for Gwen, a daughter of wealth. Her dad is only concerned with his cash flow and mom is too busy worrying about the family's place in polite society to notice her daughter. Even the servants push Gwen around! (tsk tsk!) Directed by the legendary Maurice Tourneur, who interrupted his career in France to go to Hollywood in 1914. He directed 55 films there, including "Lorna Doone" (1922), "Treasure Island" (1920), "The Last of the Mohicans" (1920), "A Doll's House" (1918) and "Trilby" (1915), before returning home in 1926.

REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM-- Girl is sent to live with her two aunts, one of whom is very strict, even to her own sister. At first Rebecca has trouble getting along with others her age, but she patiently perseveres. Co-star Eugene O'Brien also appeared opposite Norma Talmadge and Gloria Swanson.


Silent movie fans will find AMERICAN SLAPSTICK, Vol. 2 a most interesting mix of lesser-known comedy shorts.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(7.9) Little Annie Rooney (silent-1925) - Mary Pickford/William Haines/Walter James/Gordon Griffin/Spec O'Donnell

(7.8) Pollyanna (silent-1920) - Mary Pickford/Wharton James/Katherine Griffith/Helen Jerome Eddy/George Berrell

(7.5) The Poor Little Rich Girl (silent-1917) - Mary Pickford/Madlaine Traverse/Charles Wellesley/Gladys Fairbanks

(7.7) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (silent-1917) - Mary Pickford/Eugene O'Brien/Helen Jerome Eddy/Marjorie Daw

BONUS: Mary Pickford Poster Gallery (5 min.)