Cinderella

No need to seek this out. It is mundane in every way except one.

You'll remember that a feature of the story is the clock. Our girl has to be home before midnight, her only rule. She disobeys because she is having such a nice time.

We forgive her, because her life has been so rough, but rules is rules. She makes her escape just as the clock is striking. But in this movie, she has nightmares about the clock, and they are pretty interesting.

First we have two mechanical bellringers moved into place to strike the bell. These, as it turns out are gnomes we have seen before when the evil stepsisters visited a fortune teller. Since then, Cinderella has had pleasant dreams of fairies and the bad sisters nightmares of these gnomes.

Now Cinderella is visited by these two gnomes, in a sequence labelled "the consequences of disobedience." They strike the bell, then things go haywire and they hit each other. Then the hands go haywire, and the face itself starts spinning. Next the clocktower itself shakes and the gnomes fall off. Wait, thats not all. There's a fantastic sequence where the numbers on the clock face become untethered and start to roam about the face while the hands twist radically.

Its very clever. I think both the clock and the gnomes are cinematic additions. And they do spice up the otherwise ordinary event.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

The famous fairy tale, appropriately starring Mary Pickford (as Cinderella), with Owen Moore (as Prince Charming). Ms. Pickford's performance is terrific; in many of her early films, her acting ability is most clearly evident. Mr. Moore was one of Pickford's three successful actor husbands; he is charming as her Prince. This film seems adds a lot of story which is not in later re-makes; and, most of it would have been well worth repeating. However, this version skimps on background and characterization; perhaps, the filmmakers supposed everyone knew the basic story. If you don't know "Cinderella", it is possible to figure out who's who, and what's going on. Though, you won't believe how skillfully Pickford catches rodents. Great parts: Pickford and Moore romancing before the clock strikes midnight (or, is that noon?), and Pickford's "clock dream".

The accompanying soundtrack, by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton, is exemplary.

****** Cinderella (12/28/14) James Kirkwood ~ Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, Inez Marcel, Isabel Vernon

Mary Pickford is perfectly cast here as the put-upon sister living as a drudge for her stepmother (Isabel Vernon) and her two daughters. Director James Kirkwood and the costumiers have done well to portray both Lucille Carney and Georgia Wilson as well as their mother as rather ghastly individuals whilst ensuring that Pickford retains the butter-wouldn't-melt look. The story unfolds fairly faithfully, albeit substantially condensed, to the Perrault story as the King holds a ball to try and get his handsome son (Owen Moore) hitched. Naturally, a scullery maid isn't on the guest list but the timely intervention of her fairy godmother (Inez Ranous) ensures that she can go and do some royal dazzling. It's a little bit static at times, but the visual affects are charmingly applied and there's a clear chemistry between the couple that fate has thrown together. There is also a little light-heartedness at times too as it unfolds and just desserts a-plenty at the conclusion. It just goes to show what you can do with an engaging story and people who know how to play to the camera.

This is a 1914 uncomplicated version of the famous tale. The stage production is quite simple, the plot develops with seveal abrupt changes, and other characters could have been better displayed, yet one more time Mary Pickford both entertains and interests us with her art. It is not one of her best pictures, nor one of her best known ones, but it has the simple charm of a children´s tale.

A curiosity about this picture is that Owen Moore, her first husband, plays Prince Charming. They eloped to be married in 1911 and would divorce in 1920; the same month of their divorce, Mary married Douglas Fairbanks.

This is fairly well made for 1914, and it's been restored and presented in a higher quality than most films from that period, including some lovely color tinting. It'd be nice if other early silent films were made available in such quality as Mary Pickford's vehicles have been, but we'll take what we can get, I suppose. In addition, the well-known fairytale narrative makes this an ideal candidate from the early phase of feature-length films to see on DVD if you're not already an avid viewer of ancient cinema.

This is an early example of expert focus on filming and staging around the star. Pickford is filmed in the best lighting; her face is nearly always center stage, even if it means blocking or not showing frontal views of others; and there are a good number of close-ups mostly for her. That's for the best, by the way, as not much else here seems as appealing or talented, including Owen Moore, Pickford's real-life husband at the time, as Prince Charming. Otherwise, the film-making here is rather prosaic even for 1914; for example, notice how they return to the same camera positions for scenes in the kitchen, bedroom and ballroom. The framing for the kitchen scenes are very similar to those of the kitchen scenes in the 1911 Thanhouser version of Cinderella, which I saw recently before this.

The clock dream is amusing and creative, though. It begins as a superimposed vision above sleeping Cinderella and then becomes its own shot crosscut with her sleeping. The nice added score helps, too. It's worth comparing this to the dance of the clocks nightmare in Méliès's 1899 "Cinderella", as well as the one in his 1912 version. I also like the through-the-window framing of Cinderella looking out the window at dancing fairies during her other sleeping scene; it's also one of the few times Pickford's back is to the camera.

There were other stars in 1914, but I haven't seen any of them receive this good of treatment, with such classical star focus, for another year or two. Nobody, however, was bigger then in the movie world than was Mary Pickford.