La petite vendeuse

"My Best Girl" is a sweet and sentimental romantic silent film, starring Mary Pickford as a poor shopgirl, and her then future husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers, as the secret son and heir to the 5 and 10 Cent Store in which they both work.

It was nice to see Mary playing an adult role for a change, and one feels for the burdens her character has to go through, being the oppressed daughter of such a silly, blundering, selfish family. Buddy's character is a bit tough to take; he's too much of a "pretty boy" through most of the film, romancing the girl under false pretenses, dallying with her affections, but he redeems himself in the end.

The DVD version has a nice symphonic music track (refreshing in comparison to the boring organ scores on so many old Mary films) and this film is tinted, plus it has some darling home movies included from Mary and Buddy's wedding and honeymoon 10 years after the making of the film.

If you enjoy Mary Pickford on film don't forget to plop this one in your DVD player sometime soon. It was her last truly silent film and therefore something special.

A spunky stock girl in a large department store falls in love with the handsome son of the owner, who is working there incognito. Their ripening romance is threatened, however, by the antics of their two families.

Wonderfully warm & witty, MY BEST GIRL was Mary Pickford's last silent film. In it she bids farewell to the flickering shadows which made her the world's most famous celebrity. Fortunately, as her silent swan song, it is a very good picture, with excellent production values and equal dollops of comedy & heartbreak. Mary's face, and especially her eyes, express her every mood. This was the face of the shrewd & powerful woman who in a significant measure had created the motion picture industry - and who so soon would be leaving it.

Her co-star is young Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, who would score a huge success this same year of 1927 as the star of the epic WINGS, winner of the first Oscar for Best Picture. Here he displays the charm for which he became famous. Although 12 years younger than Mary in real life, he was a good knight to her lady in distress, protecting & loving her through her final silent film.

The rest of the cast is also very good: Lucian Littlefield as Pickford's tiny, ineffectual father; Sunshine Hart as her massive, emotional mother, a woman whose greatest delight is going to strangers' funerals; and Carmelita Geraghty as her flapper sister. Hobart Bosworth gives dignity to the role of Rogers' father. Comic Mack Swain appears as a harried judge. Movie mavens will recognize Nigel De Brulier in a poignant role as a crippled match seller.

The film has been restored and given an evocative new score. It will delight fans of Pickford & the silent cinema for years to come.

After MY BEST GIRL, Pickford made four talkies and even won an Academy Award, but she retired from the screen in 1933, very wealthy, her legend intact, and involved herself in various good works. Her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks came in 1936 and she married 'Buddy' Rogers in 1937, becoming, in truth, his best girl. For the next 42 years he cared for her, as age and alcohol took their toll on Little Mary. Pickford became increasingly secluded in Pickfair, rarely leaving the upper floors of her fabled mansion in her last years. She did not want her fans to see the old woman she had become. Surprisingly, she did make a TV appearance for a few moments in 1976 when she accepted an Honorary Oscar. Then it was back into the shadows. America's Sweetheart died in May of 1979 at the age of 87.

Never a great movie star, but a very well-loved gentleman, 'Buddy' Rogers involved himself with charities & various humanitarian causes. He died in 1999, at the age of 94.

This along with Stella Maris are my two most favourite Pickford films. I've seen this film about 4 times as issued by Image Entertainment. The Image Entertainment version has a beautiful and uplifting musical score that matches the movie perfectly.

Mary and Buddy are perfect together and theirs is the romance that all of us wish to have at least once in our lifetime. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry.

I also loved the performances of Lucien Littlefield who plays Mary's father, Sunshine Hart who plays her mother and the fiery and exotic Carmelita Geraghty who plays her jazz-loving, hot-tempered flapper sister.

The ending is funny. We see Mary's rag-tag family ready to make the boat on time where she will be married to her sweetheart.

One of the best and funniest silents ever! Also, check out Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy (1924). That's another funny romantic film too.

My Best Girl is Mary Pickford's last silent film...the last big go around for America's Sweetheart. In this film, she goes back to her roots...she plays someone her own age. Unlike the gothic Sparrows, or the poor low class lady in Suds, Mary comes off as striking and fills the screen with her beauty and charm. She plays a stock girl in a large department store, who falls in love with the owner's son, which at first she doesn't realize. She has to deal with her strange family, where they all look to her for leadership. The owner's son (Buddy Rogers, whom Mary later really marries) must deal with his parents and other girlfriend when he too returns her love. What's charming about this picture, is when I watched it late at night recently, is to notice how much the world has really changed since 1927. Remember when a family actually owned a department store instead of faceless boards of directors and changing CEOs? And how the cash registers rang up 5 cents for a total purchase? How the department stores has sales people every few feet to help you? How the street was filled with cars that now can only be found in museums? How innocent the dating was reflected in film...kissing was like...going all the way! It is also interesting to notice how the rich were shown on film in the 1920s. I'll bet most people in the audience could only dream of homes like those shown. And that all the actors and actresses you see are now gone, their image lives on in film..which is a moment captured in time forever.

Beautiful romantic comedy starring the great Mary Pickford, alongside her future husband Buddy Rogers. As a silent it is one of the best, a perfect example of the art of silent cinema, and as a film, it transcends all time and languages, the perfect love story.