The Love Light

Mary Pickford is worth watching even if the melodramatic plot wears a bit thin toward the end. But this movie isn't one of her finest hours.

A bucolic Italian light house keeper (Pickford) rescues an "American" sailor from the sea after he is "shipwrecked." She should have known that he wasn't American because he can speak more than one language.

During the course of this movie, set in the time of the First World War, Pickford's character looses both her brothers in the war (one through her own actions), falls in love with and marries a German spy who commits suicide after she turns him in, goes insane, gives birth and has her baby stolen by her best friend, and welcomes home her old boyfriend who has been blinded in the war. She is not having a good day.

If you liked "Sophie's Choice", you might like this movie. For me, it was just too much contrived melodrama. The moral that war destroys, not just the soldiers at the front, but the lives of their friends, family, and loved ones at home, is a valid one. It just isn't conveyed with much subtlety by this movie.

Pickford plays an Italian lighthouse keeper who falls in love with a man washed on shore who turns out to be a German spy. Although she has some moments of comedy, this is an adult story about love and redemption. Well written and directed by Frances Marion. The film also stars Marion's husband, Fred Thomson, as the spy. Certainly one of Pickford's best efforts.

This film was a rare departure from little-girl roles for Mary Pickford, who almost succeeds in giving a perfectly moving performance. The script, by Frances Marion, throws Pickford's Angela so many curves that it becomes tiring watching her sometimes-hammy reactions. Marion was Pickford's best friend, and she hand a hand in as many as seventeen of America's Sweetheart's movies. One can hope these were more successful.

Marion, director as well as writer, crammed so many melodramatic topics into The Love Light that one feels as if she thought she'd never work on a film again. Spies, unrequited love, blindness, war, betrayal, death, theft, natural disasters, insanity, and a lynch mob on top of everything else. These are enough concepts to deal with comfortably in at least two movies, but they are all unhappily jammed into about 90 minutes.

Marion's husband Fred Thomson is easy on the eyes and natural on camera as the American that Italian Angela takes into her home. The other players are mostly standard overactors, with the possible exception of Edward Philips as Angela's charming younger brother Mario.

Another thing to beware: the all-too-modern score recently imposed upon it by Maria Newman. At times it seems as if she hadn't even seen the movie.

There are some good moments ("Stewed Chicken", for instance), but overall it's only for fans of the star and writer/director.

In a coastal Italian village, perky Mary Pickford (as Angela Carlotti) and brothers Edward Phillips (as Mario) and Jean De Briac (as Antonio) lead a carefree peasant life. They play harmless tricks on the town priest and watch as their farm animals get drunk. But, "The Great War" (World War I) soon brings waves of misery to Ms. Pickford's family and friends. Her brothers go off to war, along with sensitive boyfriend Raymond Bloomer (as Giovanni). Pickford keeps the home fires burning by housing a soldier who washes up on her shore - but, self-described AWOL American Fred Thomson (as Joseph) harbors a dark secret…

Later on, war-weary villager Evelyn Dumo (as Maria) steals Pickford's baby, after losing her own. "The Love Light" refers to the job Pickford takes helping in the local lighthouse (and also, her home). This is one of a few films where Frances Marion, one of Hollywood's greatest early film writers, receives a director's credit. Her collaboration with Pickford and director of photography Charles Rosher doesn't meet expectations, but they are obviously skilled. The film could be described as overblown flourishes of symbolic prose come to naught. Most of the male cast are seen at the beginning of successful acting careers.

"The Love Light" may be most noteworthy for introducing Marion's hunky husband to moviegoers, herein, as Pickford's secondary romantic interest. By the end of the decade, Mr. Thomson had became a very popular star, joining Pickford and husband Douglas Fairbanks for three years in Quigley's annual top ten "Box Office Stars" list - Thomson was #6 in 1925, #3 in 1926, and #4 in 1927 - then, suddenly in 1928, he died. Despite dying at this level of popularity, in a series of well-produced westerns often ghost-written by wife Marion, Thomson is largely forgotten; and, few prints of his once numerous film prints survived the ages.

****** The Love Light (1/9/21) Frances Marion ~ Mary Pickford, Raymond Bloomer, Fred Thomson, Eddie Phillips

With her love off to war, a young woman operates the lighthouse near her home on the coast of Italy. One day, finding an American seaman washed up on the shore, she takes him home & nurses him. Romance blossoms and they marry. But little does she know that THE LOVE LIGHT she beams to him from atop her tower every midnight will have tragic consequences she cannot begin to imagine...

While traveling in Italy with her husband, Frances Marion met a woman whose story during The Great War was so compelling that she knew at once it would make a great movie. Marion was a screenwriter on the ascendant and her best friend was motion picture star Mary Pickford. Little Mary, who liked the idea, not only had Frances write it, but direct the film as well.

It turned out beautifully, with Pickford - in a daring departure from her little girl roles - giving one of her best performances. Her emotional display at the multitude of troubles thrown her way never wallows into histrionics. One need only look at this film to be assured, if there was ever any doubt, that America's Sweetheart was an excellent artist, as well as a huge celebrity.

This movie is also testament to one of the industry's supremely talented women. The Silent Era was a time when women were given enormous freedom to display their gifts in Hollywood, not just as actresses, but also as directors & writers. Frances Marion would not direct many films, but she was the consummate screenwriter. For over two decades she was the world's highest paid individual in her profession, male or female. She was also the first person to receive two Academy Awards. She would eventually write the scenarios for over 150 motion pictures, a large number of which are still considered to be classics.

This was the film debut for Fred Thomson, who plays the American seaman. A decathlon champion & Presbyterian minister, he had met Marion during the War. It was love at first sight for both of them & they double honeymooned in Europe with Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks. Not wanting to act, he'd eventually been persuaded to take the part in THE LOVE LIGHT by the two ladies. He proved to be a natural. A very moral man, he would find an outlet for expressing his ethics through Hollywood Westerns. With Thomson rapidly becoming one of the most popular cinema cowboys, he & Marion built a huge mansion in the Beverly Hills and began raising a family. Tragically, Fred Thomson would die on Christmas Day, 1928, from tetanus caused by a scratch on his ankle from a rusty nail. He was only 38 years old.

THE LOVE LIGHT enjoys excellent production values, sets & photography. It has been restored to a pristine condition and will be enjoyed & appreciated for many years to come.