Wilful Peggy

A young Mary Pickford has a fun role in this short feature, as a pretty but strong-willed peasant woman who attracts the attention of a rich nobleman. There isn't much plot, just a few humorous situations, but her spirited performance as "Wilful Peggy" makes it worth watching all in itself. It's not nearly so refined, of course, as the many great performances she would give in the future, but she is funny and lively, and anyone who likes Pickford should enjoy this short romantic comedy.

I'm a film maker and silent films have become my guilty pleasure lately, a lot of people watch 80's films or dumb action flicks or whatever, but me I like old silents, reason being, you can often feel the fun they had making them.

DW Griffith is remembered-by those who remember him-as a racist and/or film innovator which is probably a fair assessment either way. I will say that this shows his abilities to not just play stereotypes.

In a way Peggy is a feminist heroine, if someone offends her she breaks a piano stool over their head, she dresses like a man and at one point tries to seduce a bar maid, also the Lord is an interesting characters, he's unhindered by her stand-offish attitude and in fact likes it-even if it does seem a little condescending.

I guess though I'm being to thoughtful. It's quick paced for it's and genuinely funny.

This is really an hilarious movie, whether by the standards of 1910 or the present.Of course it is not intended to be taken seriously.Like the Three Stooges shorts, you are supposed to "check your brain at the door" and just enjoy the madness.What makes this so funny is not the plot but the outrageous nature of Mary Pickford's character as an uncompromising spitfire who will not be tamed by anyone.Like the Three Stooges, it is the characters, not the absurd plot, that makes this so funny. The frantic pacing hardly allows you time to notice the absurdity of it all,and moves along so rapidly it seems shorter than it really is. It is actually set in 18th century Ireland, not colonial America,though of course filmed in New York State.It was based on an old play called"The Country Cousin".

Movies were turned out very quickly in this period to satisfy rapidly growing demand. To the horror of the theater industry people were going beyond just fascination with these moving pictures.

This short would have been seen as a little gem and also would have gotten people asking about that young woman who was so engaging and funny. I am not sure but I think in 1910 film actors were only just being identified for the first time. Previously they were anonymous.

This is a short story that has everything with lots of spirit and humor and exquisite acting. This was designed to be an overdone send up comedy, it never set about to take itself seriously. And Mary adjusts perfectly, getting the mood and actions right.

This is what set Mary apart from other actors of the period, she was versatile, thinking and always seeking to improve and invent. She regularly studied the results on film.

This film called for Mary to set aside polite subtlety and to 'ham' it up a bit - but it is certainly not ham acting.

These are the sort of movies that were absolutely loved at the time - a complete story that engages you every second from beginning to end.

For the times and in its genre this would have been rated a 10 out of 10. Even now it is watchable and enjoyable and worth an 8.

Actors and actresses in early cinema never made any suggestions or demands to the director on the movie set. Directors were to never be questioned, and scripts were to be followed to the letter.

However, in Biograph Studio's August 1910 movie "Wilful Peggy," actress Mary Pickford, in her second year with Biograph, read the scene where her character, a rambunctious, high-spirited daughter of a peasant woman, was willing to docilely marry an older aristocrat. Pickford told the film's director, D. W. Griffith, that in no way would the daughter, who had exhibited a uncontrollable independent streak that attracted the aristocrat, would so meekly obey her mother to such a momentous demand. The actress asked Griffith to insert a scene where the mother chases her daughter around a tree trying to corral the hesitant Pickford. Griffith listened and was persuaded to film the scene just as Pickford had described. What is seen on film is the first documented suggestion of an actress made to a director which was accepted.

"Wilful Peggy" is also the picture that established Pickford's on-screen persona. Her rebellious spirit, her comedic skills, her versatility and her long-haired curls, which earned her the nickname "The Girl With The Golden Curls" long before the public knew her name, all came into the fore in this film. Pickford would temporarily leave Biograph Studios and Griffith's direction for Carl Laemmle's IMP Studios in December 1910. But the actress had yet reached her pinnacle of stardom.