Stella Maris

This is a fine old silent melodrama with an outstanding dual performance by Mary Pickford, certainly one of her greatest accomplishments. The story itself is quite good, and the rest of the cast is solid as well, but it is Pickford who holds your attention from start to finish with a wonderful portrayal of two very different characters.

Both of her characters are wonderful creations, and Pickford's portrayals bring both of them to life convincingly and memorably. Stella and Unity have vastly different appearances, life experiences, and personalities, and Pickford even gives them distinctive mannerisms and expressions. This allows the story to bring them together seamlessly in a plot that itself offers good, thoughtful drama and some good comic moments as well. You quickly come to care for both Stella and Unity in different ways, and feel for them as they learn some often difficult lessons about life.

While probably little-known today, "Stella Maris" is a terrific movie, one of the best of its era. If you enjoy silent films, you'll probably find it well worth the trouble to track down.

Mary Pickford (as Stella Maris) is a beautiful, but bedridden, paraplegic; she "has been tenderly shielded from all the sordidness and misery of life." Ms. Pickford (as Unity Blake) is, also, "another little prisoner of fate, 'The Ugly Duckling' of a London orphanage." Pickford's "Stella" lives luxuriously, with Aunt Ida Waterman (as Lady Blount) and Uncle Herbert Standing (as Sir Oliver Blount). Dashing cousin Conway Tearle (as John Risca) is a gentleman caller, and future love interest. Mr. Tearle is rather unfortunately married, however, to alcoholic Marcia Manon (as Louisa Risca). Ms. Manon visits the London orphanage, and espies Pickford's "Unity". Apparently, she has arranged to adopt "Unity" as a servant (should the waif be able to find her way to Manon's home). Upon arrival, "Unity" is treated as a slave; and, after nearly beating "Unity" to death, Manon lands herself in the pokey. Soon, Tearle is left responsible for "Stella" and "Unity"; and, both of Pickford's crippled women fall in love with him. Who will he choose?

The predictable "Stella Maris" story is somewhat poorly told. The events, and time frames given, make for an incredibly disjointed storyline. If only events were more fully explained; for instance, how is it that "Unity" is adopted (or, re-adopted?), hidden from her lovely lookalike's open portals for so long, and gets romantic with her adopted father? And, he, remember, is still married, and courting his cousin? Perhaps, the confusion could be ended with a re-fashioning of the film's title cards. Small details, like the spelling of characters' names, are likewise inconsistent. It's odd that an otherwise obviously fine production should suffer from more than a few distractions.

"Stella Maris" is, however, redeemed by its incredible performances; particularly those essayed by Pickford and Manon. Pickford's "Unity Blake" is utterly riveting; and her "Stella Maris" is no slouch, either. The contrasting roles, directed by Marshall Neilan, really allow Pickford to show her incredible prowess as an actress, rather than as a personified "star". It may be true that Pickford was able to play "Unity" without repercussion, because audiences could also have her lovely, curled "Stella". She is so good that an unenlightened viewer (who misses an occasional title card) may not believe Pickford was playing both roles. Pickford delivered many fine performances, but "Stella Maris" may be THE one to show a Pickford detractor. Certainly, Mary Pickford was a 1918 "Best Actress", for her dual role; and Marcia Manon's addicted, sadistic wife was the year's "Best Supporting Actress".

********* Stella Maris (1/21/18) Marshall Neilan ~ Mary Pickford, Conway Tearle, Marcia Manon, Ida Waterman

STELLA MARIS has got to be one of the great silent films. Superstar Mary Pickford plays two roles in this seemingly sentimental tale (but it's not). She plays the lovely but crippled Stella Maris, whose family works hard to hide the ugliness of life from. She is shielded from the world because she is crippled. But of course her family doesn't do her any real favors. Eventually Stella is able to walk, and she discovers the horrors of war and crime and poverty by herself.

Pickford also plays Unity Blake, a homely and misshapen orphan who is taken from the orphanage by a cruel and drunken woman (Marcia Manon) who eventually beats her and goes to jail. Sent back to the orphanage, Unity is "hired" by the cruel woman's husband (Conway Tearle), but he is enamored of beautiful Stella Maris.

Pickford is just plain brilliant in playing these two women (and yes they share a few scenes together). Stella is pretty much standard fare for Pickford: golden curls, white frilly dresses, etc. Unity is a marvel of invention with her crooked body, crooked smile, and long dark hair. It's hard to believe this is Mary Pickford.

The film itself uses the iris shot beautifully to show what characters are thinking. The fade outs are well done. The scenes where the two Pickford characters appear together are flawless. Of special note is a gorgeous shot of Unity approaching the camera for a closeup, but in the end only her eyes show up in a deep purple tinted scene.

The ending is haunting. Superb work.

If you have never seen a Pickford film, this Artcraft Production is a perfect introduction to the star's versatile talents. In her dual roles as Stella and Unity she displays a range and depth of emotions hardly seen in films of this era.

Pickford was drawn to this story immediately after screenwriter Frances Marion suggested she read the novel. Pickford's labor of love in getting this book to the screen is evident in every scene. Art Direction and sets are superb--subtle yet surprising and stylish, even smartly humorous at times. It's a fine production throughout and, astonishingly, even the special effects hold up well today.

This is a lovely little film, another Mary Pickford film that has been long available to cherish as an artifact from a long forgotten era beautifully preserved by the Mary Pickford Institute. Most silent fans would perhaps think of Pollyanna, Rebecca or Sparrows as being her best work but I would put this one in there too, not only for her acting but also the production.

She plays Stella Maris - a cripple who has been completely and tenderly shielded from The World by her Uncle and Aunt, so has a few shocks when she's finally able to walk and process information for herself. She convincingly plays Stella Maris complete with pretty curls glistening in soft focus and dripping elegance. She also convincingly plays orphan girl Unity Blake adopted by the man she loves, the more elderly looking and well-chiselled John Risco (Conway Tearle). The problem was of course that rich Risco had previously married a "commoner" with a drink problem – like many in the original cinema audiences perhaps – one of the peripheral familiar messages here being that when the working class is teetotal they're likely to be as faithful as dogs to their masters and mistresses. Even to the death. For the plain girl Unity she plastered her hair with Vaseline and walked lopsided as though she had had to carry children for years – so well that her mother visiting the film set was worried that she was turning into Unity, and also had to tell a worried Adolph Zukor that the character died early in the picture. In fact, these are 2 of Mary's finest performances ever, and in the one film. There's some nice languid photography, sometimes pretty inventive with great tinting throughout, overall engrossing stuff for 1917, and augmented in the Milestone Films release with a fantastic orchestral music score by Phillip Carli.

The 84 minutes are well plotted (even with a couple of large implausibilities, the largest being just how fast and hard the Law dealt with Mrs Risco for her violence) never drag and are additionally clean and decent – would that it could still be the same for these speedier earthier techno times! If you really like silent melodrama you must see this fine romance.