The Poor Little Rich Girl

Like so many of the silents, there is a powerful message here about family and the importance of family. Here is a little girl with everything money can buy except the time of her parents. They are so busy with making money and the social circuit they have no time for their little girl (Mary Pickford). As is also the case with so many silents, the cue cards make sure that we understand the points the makers want made. And as has been the case in so many other silents, the movie makes its points very well and did not need the extra cue cards to make them. Having said that, this is a very good movie. Early films could do a very good job of telling a story and making a statement. This one does indeed do both.

The most original aspect of this film is that it translates into images the delirium of a seriously ill little girl fighting for her life. The beginning of the film is quite conventional both as regards the story, a little girl is ignored by her rich parents and bullied by the servants, and the way of filming, mostly indoor long duration wide shots with fixed camera, with some medium shots and a few close-ups. There are some slapstick gags and a funny scene when the father, remembering that, as a child, he had been dressed as a girl to punish him, decides to dress Gwen as a boy. Far from considering this as a punishment, she enjoys her boy costume and has a lot of fun having a mud fight with street boys.

The film becomes more interesting in the second half when it veers towards surrealism. It shows what Gwen is imagining, taking literally expressions that she hears, e.g. her father fighting bears, and the servants looking like their nicknames, snake in grass, double-face or big ears. It also shows the father, who has big financial worries, visualising his double taking a gun to commit suicide, with Gwen overlooking the scene.

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In addition to typecasting Mary Pickford as playing child characters, this role established her as America's Sweetheart. The 24-year-old Pickford plays an 11-year-old rich girl, who's neglected by her parents and is raised by nasty housekeepers and several personal schoolmarms. The only playmate she's allowed is a bore. Of course, every viewer sympathizes with the character's predicament, and Pickford gets the most out of that. The mud fight and tantrum scenes add some amusement between the more gushy moments and the great dream sequence.

Much of the credit here also needs to go to the screenwriter Frances Marion. Besides being a woman in a male-dominated business, she was one of the first scenarists to have creative control over productions. Like another female screenwriter, Anita Loos, Marion helped introduce the role of intertitles in silent film (as opposed to the tableau style of title cards only to introduce scenes). Both women also sometimes demonstrated their authorship with self-referential winks; Marion's "Armarilly of Clothes-Line Alley" and Loos's "Wild and Woolly" are two examples--where the authors expose their constructions with one intertitle.

Pickford does well to overcome the weirdness of an adult playing the role of a child. Moreover, the setting of a mansion, in addition to large props and tall actors accentuate Pickford's natural smallness, but more needed to be done about her adult figure. Director Maurice Tourneur and the film-making crew add appropriate, non-intrusive style to this sweet photoplay, providing Pickford with the most important vehicle of her career.

There is something of the Lewis Carroll in this quite touching story of a young girl "Gwen" (Mary Pickford) who lives with her wealth-obsessed father (Charles Wellesley) and her socially-obsessed mother (Madlaine Traverse) who indulge their daughter insofar as money allows, but who pretty much neglect her otherwise. Despite her best efforts to engage with her parents - the spirited eleven year old "Gwen" makes little progress so seeks friendship amongst the local (not exactly "suitable" children) culminating in quite an entertaining mud fight. When two of the servants at her home mix her medication, she becomes dangerously ill and the whimsical elements introduce themselves - she has some wonderfully surreal dreams of the life she might like to have had; avenges the ill-treatment of her governess, addresses the indifference of her parents (a potent scene with her father sitting by a dollar pill printing machine churning out note after note...) - all whilst the bed-side waiting parents have to completely reevaluate their own priorities. Pickford was mid-20s playing the diminutive child, and she does it with a plausible, tomboy-ish, innocence that carries the humorous elements of Eleanor Gates' play well. At times it is a little too far-fetched, but Maurice Tourneur keeps the focus on the underlying theme of familial incivism front and centre and effective whilst ensuring the steady pace keeps the whole thing enjoyable to watch.

Wealthy ten-year-old Mary Pickford (as Gwen) lives in a beautiful mansion; she has everything she needs, except love. She must make an appointment to see her father (Charles Wellesley), who spends his time wheeling and dealing; and, she barely gets an opportunity to see her mother (Madlaine Traverse), who is busily attending to social duties. Her parents do not have time to spend with lonely Ms. Pickford; and, she is left in the care of unloving servants...

A lot of studio trickery helps to make Pickford believable as the fun-loving, independent and lonely little Gwendolyn; her age is not at all vague, as her 11th birthday is celebrated during the running time. You'll notice the large sets, and tall actors (standing on telephone books, no doubt) right away. Yet, finally, it's Pickford who pulls off the ruse. When she sits down for her tutoring, in close-up, Pickford makes the character a fully believable individual. The effort to make Pickford appear small adds to the film's surreal whimsicality.

Importantly, "The Poor Little Rich Girl" is the first of Pickford's adult portrayals of little girls. Her relative youth, and lack of "affected" mannerisms, is an early strength; she is fresh, and convincing. Later on, Pickford's portrayals suffered, as she employed stock muggings, pouts, and grimaces (to be fair, these were responsive to moviegoers increasing demand she remain in the "little girl" roles). Subsequently, the Pickford mannerisms were more cloyingly adopted by Shirley Temple, and others; for example, note how closely Pickford resembles Ms. Temple after she dons a boy's hat and clothes.

Director Maurice Tourneur and set designer Ben Carré help create the extraordinary, whimsical world "Gwen" inhabits. There are some "special effect" sequences, ending with a drug-induced delirium. Therein, Pickford dreams about the day's people and events; and, finally, she meets the beckoning figure of death, who invites: "Here, in the forest, dark and deep, I offer you, eternal sleep…" Maxine Elliott Hicks and Herbert Prior are among the more notable supporting players. Frequent Pickford writer Frances Marion does a fantastic job bringing story details together; she, Pickford, Mr. Tourneur, and Mr. Carré certainly created a monster.

********** The Poor Little Rich Girl (3/5/17) Maurice Tourneur ~ Mary Pickford, Maxine Elliott Hicks, Herbert Prior