Customer Reviews

Stella Maris

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're not used to silent movies they can be a lot of hard work. I've spent a lot of time watching silent comedies (mainly Keaton, Harold Lloyd and L&H) but Stella Maris was my first drama.

One Sunday afternoon I put it in the DVD and tied my wife to the chair to watch it with me...no problem. Within minutes we were both mesmerized and 84 minutes later had experienced a truly wonderful film.

I'd read about Mary Pickford, but never seen her and really only bought this out of interest because I was reading Samuel Goldwyn's biography at the time.

The end result? An good, solid introduction to silent drama and Ms. Pickford and a good quality DVD to boot. Nicely restored with an understated soundtrack.

As a bonus there's some nice home movie stuff and news reels of Pickford at the height of her fame.

Confined to bed by a crippling illness, Stella Maris (Pickford) is sheltered to the point that all bad news is kept from her: she looks out on peaceful scenes and is visited by pets, children and a handsome journalist named John Risca (Conway Tearle). Risca's wife, Louise, is a drug addicted alcoholic who adopts a homely orphan named Unity Blake (also Pickford)..... This film is undoubtedly a classic. It could be regarded as a sincere and successful attempt to break through the shackles of melodrama. The fact that it was made in 1917 (it was released in January, 1918) is a tribute to everyone associated with it. The scenerio is intelligent, and although the picture has too many titles, they are all worthwhile. For years, the only surviving print had been a wretched 16mm dupe in which nearly all the quality of Walter Strandling's photography was lost. Fortunately, the Mary Pickford Foundation has restored the film from 35mm materials, and one can now be stunned by ravishing close-ups of Stella Maris, contrasting with the pathetic, distorted face of Unity Blake. Marshall Neilan's direction is of a high order, and although Marcia Manon overplays the role of Louise Risca, all the other parts area acted realistically. Supposedly, in a review from MOVIE WEEKLY, an exhibtor remarked - arriving too late to view the opening titles - "Mary Pickford's great, but she'd better watch out for the one who plays the slavey" (!).

Mary Pickford was not the most beautiful silent film star, but it is perhaps this fact which enables her to portray her two roles in Stella Maris so well. Her looks were somewhat unconventional. It is something else again, something indefinable which enables her to draw the viewer towards her. This film shows that she had acting ability in abundance, but by itself her acting ability cannot explain why it was that Pickford was the greatest silent star, perhaps even the greatest star who ever lived. She was a phenomenon. This DVD contains, as supplementary material, some newsreels of her selling war bonds. Pickford was the greatest draw for the crowds, greater than Fairbanks, greater even than Chaplin.

Stella Maris is one of the best introductions to Pickford's films not least because the viewer gets two Marys for the price of one. Her dual role of Stella Maris, a poor little rich girl, and Unity Blake, a Cockney orphan, is astonishing not because they appear on screen together (after all we get a whole cast of Buster Keatons in The Playhouse), but because they look so unalike. Stella Maris is the familiar Pickford persona, the young `girl with the curls'; Unity Blake is something altogether different. A title proclaims that she is Mary Pickford, but otherwise it would be easier to believe she were someone else entirely. Here is an unfamiliar Pickford, without a hint of sweetness. In the end, it is as if she has stepped out of a German expressionist horror story. We are left with an image of her eyes surrounded by shadows, which is more Murnau or Lang than Marshall Neilan. No wonder contemporary audiences found this film difficult. Today it looks like Mary Pickford's best.

The picture quality of this DVD is almost perfect. The colour tinting is muted and adds immeasurably to the atmosphere. The score has some fine themes and adds to the action without overpowering it.

Everyone who is a fan of silent cinema should have some Mary Pickford films and Milestone should be congratulated for their wonderful collection. It is only to be hoped that they bring out some more soon.

This is an outstanding movie, with Mary Pickford giving brilliant performances as both the well-loved Stella Maris and the abused and unloved Unity Blake. She makes your heart break for Unity, and sometimes Miss Pickford looks so un-Mary-Pickford-like that it's hard to believe it's really her playing the role! Mary Pickford was one of the greatest talents in film, and her acting style is natural and moving---contrary to what many people mistakenly think silent actors and actresses were like. And the music score---a crucial element of silent films---nicely compliments the story. "Stella Maris" is a classic, and I'd encourage anyone to get it!

Mary Pickford's skillful acting is highly evident in this exceptional film. She portrays two characters which are complete opposites. Stella is the beautiful bedridden cripple and Unity Blake is the ugly duckling of an orphanage.
The character Unity gives Pickford her meatier role, requiring her to take on the villain and be harrassed and beaten. In fact, Unity steals the show. She is a character of such depth that we long to watch her next move, in contrast to the Stella character, whose indisposition, naivety and sheltered existence render her incapable of much action.
No doubt the audience of the period, the unwavering Pickford fans, desired to glimpse the 'girl with the curls' and to this end the Stella character has a function beyond vying for the same man loved by Unity.
The villain in the film is Louise Risca who is a violent alcoholic who gains satisfaction by making others feel pain and unhappiness. Her end is satisfying to the audience because her dark hold on others is broken.A sense of relief is evident in the film.
The film comments on the theory that some characters are more expendable than others. It forces the audience to confront its own values when we do not feel a sense of loss when some characters achieve happiness through the sacrificial actions of another.
'Stella Maris' could equally have been called 'Unity Blake' due to the pivotal nature of the role played by her character.In many ways it is her film and it is her involvement which leaves a lasting effect in our memories.
A film which explores the psychology of its characters, 'Stella Maris', is well worth viewing.

There is a notion that most silent films made before about 1920 are technically crude. This is not true; many masterpieces were made in the 1910s, and among them is the delicately executed, beautifully performed STELLA MARIS, based a popular 1913 novel by William J. Locke. The film is particularly noted for the casting of Mary Pickford, the first great cinema star, in a double role, playing both the beautiful and innocent Stella Maris and the extremely plain and emotionally needy orphan Unity Blake.

The words "Stella Maris" are Latin for "Star of the Sea," one of the most ancient Roman Catholic titles of the Virgin Mary and used to imply a guiding star for travelers. The title character of the film, named Stella Maris, is not unlike Mary in the sense that she portrayed as completely pure--although this purity is not entirely of her own making. Unable to walk, she has been confined to a bed room in her wealthy family's home, where her aunt, uncle, and all visitors seek to make her life perpetually happy. She is particularly fond of John Risca (Conway Tearle), a family friend who entertains her with stories of a castle he owns, never dreaming that Stella Maris will one day be able to leave her room and discover that his stories are fantasies. In truth, although a wealthy man, John is trapped in a loveless marriage to Louise (Marcia Manon), an alcoholic and drug user who adopts an extremely plain but emotionally needy orphan named Unity Blake--not from love, but to force the child into servitude. When Louise beats Unity in a drunken rage, she is arrested and sent to prison, and John decides to adopt Unity in an effort to atone for his wife's behavior.

As time passes and both Stella Maris and Unity grow older, both fall in love with John. Stella Maris undergoes a surgery that allows her to walk, and after leaving her cocoon she discovers that the world is an often harsh and vicious place. When she makes a surprise visit to John she is shocked to discover that he is married to Louise, recently released from prison and now determined to hurt and humiliate Stella Maris as much possible. But Louise has reckoned without Unity Blake, who realizes that John does not love her and can never marry her, and decides to find a way for John and Stella Maris to be happy together.

STELLA MARIS was filmed in 1918, when Mary Pickford was about twenty six, and it presents her playing both Stella Maris and Unity Blake as girls of about thirteen or fourteen who age to about sixteen or seventeen over the course of the film. Pickford was extremely popular for playing young girls, something she did well into her thirties. Sound films would force her to abandon such roles, but on the silent screen she was indeed remarkable at such impersonations, and her ability to play two such different characters in a single film makes her accomplishment all the more astonishing. Although the role of Stella Maris presents Pickford as she was most often seen, in golden curls, it is really with the role of Unity Blake that she truly triumphs, creating a sympathetic character who is pitiful in her plain looks, awkward behavior, and emotional neediness--and ultimately noble in her intent, if not entirely so in her actions. Pickford's performance is nothing short of a triumph.

When it came to production staff, Mary Pickford, already the most powerful world-wide star, didn't mess around. The screenplay (at this period written as an outline scenario and title cards) was created by the legendary Frances Marion, who is generally regarded as the single most successful female writer in Hollywood: no less than 130 of her screenplays were produced between about 1912 and 1946, she worked with Pickford on several films, and in the sound era won Academy Awards for THE BIG HOUSE and THE CHAMP. In other hands the story might have been excessively sentimental or absurdly melodramatic or veered to much into its fairytale qualities, but Marion knew how to balance out her elements, and the script strikes all the right notes without leaning too far in any one direction. The film was also directed by yet another expert who had also worked with Pickford on several films, Marshall Neilan, who began his career as an actor with D.W. Griffith and continued on to a series of notable films. His touch is no less exacting than Frances Marions, and between these two, Pickford's knock-out double performance, and extremely strong performances from Conway Tearle and Marsha Manon, STELLA MARIS is an overlooked jewel.

The film elements are remarkable for their clarity, and the sound score is very nice. The DVD also includes a bonus of newsreel and home movies showing Pickford with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks; friends Charlie Chaplin and Lillian and Dorothy Gish, among others; and her mother. If you are a fan of silent film, and particularly if you are fan of Mary Pickford, you'll want this movie in your personal collection.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Mary Pickford's seminal performance, possibly the greatest dual role in film history, Stella Maris is a landmark of silent cinema.