Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies

It's impossible to dislike a film about the life of Mary Pickford--especially when it offers clips from many of her best films as well as narration by Mary herself (taken from various interviews she made later in life). On top of that, the filmmakers seemed to really like Miss Pickford and the documentary was a nice, loving tribute to this silent star. It's narrated by Michael York and is chock full of nice interviews, a few clips that were never shown before* and is nearly as good as the biography of Pickford that they showed on "The American Experience". My only quibble is that the film seemed a bit too glowing at times--and I was left wondering if Pickford could be as wonderful as they made her sound! Well worth seeing.

*Twice in the film, they showed a clip from "Sparrows" of an angel interacting with Mary. It was possibly the most beautiful camera trick I've seen in a silent film--yet, inexplicably, the clip never actually made it to the final movie. I have no idea why--it was amazing.

This excellent documentary gives Mary Pickford her due as an actress, producer, director, business woman, and humanitarian. There are lots of clips from her movies, audio tapes of Pickford which serve as narration here, and comments by many her knew her.

From the teens thru the early 30s, Pickford was the most famous woman on the planet. As a movie star, she was idolized all over the world. She probably still ranks among the top women at the box office; most of her films were huge successes and raked in millions of dollars.

As an actress, Pickford played just about every kind of part. She was equally successful at comedy and drama. She also made several movies where she played more than one role. In LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY she played both the boy and his mother. In STELLA MARIS she played little Mary and the deformed Unity. In several films she played "little Mary" as a girl and also as an adult.

Pickford also transitioned from silents to talkies, winning a best-actress Oscar for her talkie debut, COQUETTE.Although she made only 4 talkies, Pickford remained an integral part of the Hollywood scene and movie-making through the 1940s.

Among those interviewed are Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lillian Gish, Buddy Rogers, and Pickford's adopted daughter Roxanne. There's also a rather bizarre clip of Amelia Earhart visiting Pickford.

This is an excellent film with lots of information about Pickford, Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith.

An excellent overview of Mary Pickford's life and career. Aside from her endearing screen presence that made her so popular and 'America's Sweetheart', she was a shrewd businesswoman and real pioneer. This documentary does a great job of blending clips from her films and personal life with audio of Pickford reflecting back on her career. Just one example of brilliant footage shown is a bit that was actually cut from the 1926 film 'Sparrows', which had a large transparent angel hovering over Pickford and reaching out to her. There are countless others in what is a visual feast.

We get insights into her associations (D.W Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Amelia Earhart, Adolph Zukor, Lillian Gish, Walt Disney, etc), the brilliant way she navigated her career from appearing in films as a teenager to co-founding United Artists, and her personal spirit, which was pragmatic, intelligent, and philosophical. It also gives us a little history lesson of the film industry.

At one point Pickford opted to take a percentage of the profits of her films and was told she was going out on a limb, and she responded by saying "Good, because that's where I want to be." It's refreshing to see this success story of a woman who had such talent both on and off the screen, and someone who was tough as nails, but without being arrogant or abrasive.

Where the documentary fails us a bit is by being over-the-top in its adulation. Michael York practically gushes in his sugary narration, and we don't get some of the darker aspects of this amazing woman's life - her struggles with depression and alcohol after walking away from her acting career. Those things don't diminish her in any way, and would have made the account more honest. As it is though, it's well worth seeing, and it's a nice springboard into Pickford's body of work.

Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies (2008)

**** (out of 4)

Terrific documentary taking a look at the career and life of actress Mary Pickford. The film tracks the earliest days of her life, her meeting D.W. Griffith, forming United Artists, marrying Douglas Fairbanks and her rise to power and eventual retirement. I really don't think fans of Pickford could ask for much more from a documentary because this one here really delivers just about everything you'd want to know. We're given a very detailed look at her career and the various paths she took after leaving Griffith (only to go back) and her decision to start financing her own pictures. We also learn about her personal life as well as getting to hear stories from archival interviews with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Buddy Rogers and Lillian Gish. I think the greatest thing going for the film is that we have Pickford herself doing the majority of the narration herself. Around twelve interviews that the actresses recorded throughout her life are edited into the film so that she can talk about various stages in her career including some interesting stuff about why she retired when she did and why she felt The Little Tramp killed Chaplin and she didn't want her little girl to do the same to her. Throughout the running time we're shown clips from the majority of her movies and we also get some footage from newsreels including some footage of her and Gish at the D.W. Griffith burial in LaGrange, KY. Fans of Pickford or Hollywood history are certainly going to enjoy this well-detailed documentary that covers a lot of ground and manages to be a definitive look at the legend.