Une pauvre petite fille riche

This delightful film marked a turning point in the career of Mary Pickford, the first time in adulthood that she played a little girl. The illusion was enhanced with specially scaled sets and props that made Mary look smaller, and also by casting unusually tall actors as the "grown-ups," but it wouldn't have worked if Mary herself hadn't been such a gifted performer in her own right. She is remarkably convincing as 11 year-old Gwendolyn. It's notable that when Mary (who was 24 when this film was made) plays scenes opposite Maxine Elliott (who was 12 at the time), the illusion is not spoiled. The great success of The Poor Little Rich Girl at the box office ensured that Mary Pickford would be playing little girls well into her 30s, despite occasional attempts to demonstrate more versatility. Eventually she came to consider the role something of a curse, but in any event the film holds up nicely today: it's interesting, suspenseful, and funny, with odd touches of surrealism during the extended dream sequence that forms the climax.

Mary's Gwendolyn is certainly a sympathetic protagonist. The story paints a vivid picture of the girl's loneliness and her desperation to receive some attention from her high society parents, but she's no sad sack-- she's a spirited kid bursting with vitality, though she's surrounded by servants who devote themselves to stifling her energy. She's sheltered but no snob, and much of the havoc she creates comes when she invites some of the scruffier neighborhood kids inside to play. The comic high point is a mud fight that takes place in the green house of Gwendolyn's home. (Oddly enough, Mary Pickford revealed in later years that director Maurice Tourneur was opposed to the inclusion of this sequence and had to be persuaded to film it.) The mud fight is great fun, but for me the movie's real highlight comes when Gwendolyn, ill and delirious, has a bizarre dream that offers metaphors for her life and the people she's known. For instance, her mean-spirited governess, described earlier as a "snake in the grass," actually appears as such in the dream, while another character is shown to be "two-faced." I won't reveal any more of the imagery for anyone who might see this film, except to note that the dream sequence alone is worth the price of admission.

P.S. I happened to see The Poor Little Rich Girl at a recent screening at the Museum of the City of New York, where locally-made movies are occasionally shown. Viewers interested in New York City history may be interested to learn that this film includes location scenes of Mary taking a ride along Riverside Drive as well as some brief shots of Wall Street. My fellow New Yorkers got a big laugh at one point when Gwendolyn's father contemplates selling his mansion for $35,000!

If you had to pick a typical Mary Pickford film to understand her appeal in silent movies you should look no further than The Poor Little Rich Girl. In this the 24 Mary with the curls that audiences the world over loved, plays an 11-12 year old girl, neglected by her status conscious parents.

Not that the idea was anything new, but Mary does put it over quite well. Her parents Madlaine Traverse are caught up in their busy societal world and pretty much ignore their child. But when she accidentally overdoses on some medicine and hovers between life and death her parents wake up and smell the coffee.

One thing I found absolutely fascinating was that apparently as a punishment for misbehavior one was forced to wear the clothes of the opposite sex. That certainly raises some interesting questions about gender identity in American society in 1917. Mary is forced to wear boys clothes and when she goes out and meets a gang of street kids, she's questioned about her masculinity and really lashes out at her tormentors.

What makes the film really standout though for me is the fantasy world that director Maurice Tourneur created as Mary is in a coma fighting for her life. Given the times the special effects cinematography was wonderful for its time. Cecil B. DeMille couldn't have done better creating a view of how a child saw the world around her and the possible paradise she could have if she quit fighting for her own life.

Great special effects and a standout performance by Mary Pickford make The Poor Little Rich Girl a classic from the days when movies had no voice.

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.

The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey when early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century.

What is most interesting to me is that the film was directed by Maurice Tourneur. Maurice had an incredible career spanning from the earliest days up through the 1940s. And yet, I think he is not a well-known figure. His son, Jacques, is quite a bit more known due to his working with producer Val Lewton. But why has Maurice been forgotten?

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.