Rags

Mary Pickford loves bank teller J. Farrell MacDonald in a toupee, rather than bank president Joseph Manning, as who would not? When MacDonald turns out to have been tapping the till, he's given six hours to leave town. Miss Pickford goes with him, and soon dies in childbirth. When the infant grows up to be Miss Pickford, MacDonald has become a drunkard, which gives the opportunity for some comedy. At the same time, Manning's nephew, Marshall Neilan shows up in town to prospect for gold. Miss Pickford falls in love with him, but Neilan tells his partner he feels sorry for her. MacDonald gets shot and killed, Miss Pickford gets sent back to Manning for love of her mother, and she promptly charms the old goat.

The story proceeds at a staccato pace, all incidents and charm. Ordinarily I would blame this on a cut-down print, but I looked at a copy that was 66 minutes long, and the IMDb say this is a 50-minute movie! It's a subpar vehicle for Miss Pickford to be charming in, which of course, she is.

People who are not used to see good silent films are surprised to see a 1915 film this good. The acting is natural and fascinating, the sets, lighting and costumes are all first rate. Remember these big stars of early film had that `star' quality, that indefinable something that grabs our attention and makes us care. Pickford, Neilan and MacDonald are all excellent and I hope someday the rest of this film is found! PLOT: The relationship between a plucky daughter and her brutish father is dissected in this classic Mary Pickford drama set in a mining community. Pickford plays "Rags," a pretty but wild girl who defends her alcoholic father (J. Farrell MacDonald), a disgraced bank cashier, no matter how he mistreats her. Enter a handsome engineer (Marshall Neilan), whose family had once fired Rag's father for theft. Rags falls in love but realizes that marriage is a hopeless proposition considering her lowly place in society. But when she learns that her father plans to rob the newcomer, Rags betrays him to the sheriff, and he is shot in the ensuing battle. Before he expires, however, the old man writes to his former employer to take care of Rags. She journeys East, becomes a proper lady, and can soon plan a future with the handsome engineer. Written for the screen by Frances Marion and Pickford herself, Rags was based on a novel by Edith Barnard Delano, whose Hulda from Holland was filmed by Pickford the following year. According to her own account, it was seeing her name in lights on Broadway advertising Rags that persuaded Mary Pickford to re-negotiate her contract with Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount).

"Rags" (1915) with Mary Pickford, J. Farrell MacDonald, Marshall Neilan, Joseph Manning, and others is a very typical Pickford vehicle of her early features, showcasing Pickford's ability to portray rich and poor, and going from one to another, and possibly back again, with a delightful dexterity. Pickford to watch on screen is a viewer's delight anyway. She's a work of art! This James Kirkwood directed film shows a lack of directorial creativity, but Pickford more than takes up the slack. She also plays two parts here, both mother and daughter. First we see the mother, wooed by two men, the president of the bank and one of his major assistants. The assistant wins her hand, J. Farrell MacDonald, but he's caught embezzling even before he marries Pickford, is fired, and is told to marry Pickford and quickly get out of town. He ends up being a horrific drunk, is very poor, living in a shack, but soon to be a father to a youngster. Pickford, as the mom, dies after giving birth, but before she dies she names her baby Glory. The baby's father, MacDonald, says the baby should be called Rags because that's all she'll ever know. Well, if you've ever seen a Pickford film, you know Rags will be anything by the end of the film besides a - Rags!

Wonderful to watch. Certainly not the finest of Pickford, but a lovely film, and most fun to watch. Will not be lost on anyone who is able to view it. Predictable, implausible (from the beginning!), and impossibly gratifying whether you think it will be or not or want it to be. You'll definitely see why Mary Pickford became "America's Sweetheart".