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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Gift From the Past for Lemony Snickett Fans, June 28, 2006
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
United Artists in the mid-1920's stood outside the motion picture industry's block booking system. It owned no theaters and did not have enough films to offer them in blocks. This meant each of the UA producers (Griffith, Fairbanks, Chaplin, and Pickford) had to finance each film individually; not an easy thing with the rising costs of producing long features. While Griffith was digging himself into a big hole (which would ultimately cost him his production company) making epic films and trying to top his early successes, Pickford prudently operated on a smaller scale. The irony being that she produced the type of folksy stuff that Griffith had once done so well and so profitably.
"Sparrows" was her last appearance playing a teenager and even though in her thirties she probably would have been physically believable in these roles for a couple more years. Most often described as "Dickensian" because of its gloomy feel and slightly off-kilter production design, "Sparrows" is the original "Series of Unfortunate Events". It is regarded as the least dated of her pictures (maybe of all silents), fitting because it does not seem at all dated. Even the humor seems contemporary with little Molly misquoting bible verses with stuff like: "Let not thy right cheek know what thy left cheek is getting".
"Sparrows" is also more perennially appealing than any silent film but it deals with a serious subject as baby farms are a historical fact and wealthy parents had reasons to fear kidnapping. The kidnapping in "Sparrows" has an eerie similarity to that of the Lindbergh baby, which would not take place until seven years "after" the film.
The "look" of the film reflects the German expressionist style and should delight Lemony Snicket fans and anyone who gets off on creepy-strange beauty. Set designer Harry Oliver "aged the tree stumps with blowtorches, and the entire picture has that netherworld quality of a slightly stylized environment that could only be created in a movie studio". Watch for the early scene where the baby farm operator crushes the little doll and drops it into the quicksand where it slowly disappears.
You also see a lot of Pickford's technique in Hal Roach's "Little Rascals". Check out the sequence when Little Splutters is leaving and his imprisoned friends are waving goodbye from inside the barn, by passing their hands through the slats. In fact Spec O'Donnell, who plays nasty stepson Ambrose, would later be a Roach regular. He is responsible for the film's first big laugh when he beans Molly with a turnip while she is trying to get the baby to stop crying. It is totally unexpected and even the baby finds it funny.
Also of note is the dream sequence where Jesus comes to take the baby to heaven. Modern special effects could not improve on what they got using a simple matte exposure process. A similar technique worked so well with the swamp scenes that a legend grew up that Pickford and the children were actually at risk from the live alligators used in the scenes. Probably no silent managed a more genuinely suspenseful sequence that when they are crossing a rotting tree limb which is slowly cracking and dipping toward the water full of hungry alligators.
Gustav von Seyffertitz does great as the evil Mr. Grimes (an early Snidley Whiplash) and is one of the best bad guys to come out of the silent era.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Pickford's Best, March 31, 2001
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
The reason why Sparrows works so well as a film is that there is a genuine sense of threat. This is partly because the sets used for the film, although constructed on the Pickford-Fairbanks backlot, are remarkably convincing. The baby farm, where Mary Pickford and her group of orphans are held prisoner, looks old, rundown and dirty, while the swamp surrounding the farm looks fetid, diseased and fully of dangers. The quicksand, which was actually made from sawdust and cork ground up with water, seems ready to swallow up the unwary. The alligators guarding the swamp are real, but their apparent proximity to Pickford and the children is an illusion brought about through clever splicing of two separate images. The sense of menace which pervades the film also owes a great deal to the performance of Gustav von Seyffertitz as Grimes the owner of the farm. His limping gait means that he creeps everywhere, becoming a looming presence. His looks can be compared to those of Max Schreck in Nosferatu, but von Seyfferitz's performance is not that of a monster from a horror film. The threat that his acting suggests is more realistic than the threat of a nightmare. Sparrows is a film with a great deal of suspense mixed with some fine humour and emotion. Pickford, as usual, gives a sympathetic performance. She is feisty, resourceful and courageous. The black and white print used for this DVD is in very good condition. The only slight query I have is with regard to its length. Sparrows is often listed as being between 81 and 84 minutes in length, yet the print for the Milestone DVD runs 107 minutes. It could be that DVD print includes additional material, alternatively it could be that it runs slower than other prints. The DVD has as a bonus two Pickford Biograph shorts directed by D.W. Griffith. Both Wilful Peggy and The Mender of Nets are entertaining and considering their age look remarkably fine.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pickford's Best, December 6, 1999
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
Any doubts that may be held about Mary Picford's skill as an actress and the validity of her screen persona can be put to rest after watching "Sparrows". This is an absolutely beautiful film, and if they were handing out Oscars in 1926 Pickford would surely have been a contender. The plot is faux-Dickens and it would be easy to sneer at the film's overt optimism and dated sentiment. But its a lovely film all around, with just the right blend of comedy, corn and thrills. A special nod to some of the most beautiful camerawork I have had the pleasure of witnessing.
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