Mary Pickford

I have seen this documentary twice, first on PBS, and then on DVD. Mary Pickford's life was one that was both remarkable, beautiful and tragic. She came from a very poor back round working class family and managed through plays, and then movies to become Hollywood's first starlet. She also was a very feisty business woman and started her own distributing company, United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. After a failed marrige, her married Douglas Fairbanks, and for a while then had a fairytale hollywood romance. Her life also had much tragedy after the loss of her mother, her divorce from her husband, and reliezing loosing her career due to her aging and became almost a recluse until her death. The documentary is well down, but there is a sort of gloomy,depressing quality to it, even when the documentary is talking about the happy times of her career. The music through out is very sad. I would have liked to see more of her happy times show as happy, and the sad parts shown as sad, this would have given more contrast to the film. Over all though, a very good documentary about an extrodinary woman.

This DVD is the PBS Special about Mary Pickford, part of the American Masters series. Mary Pickford was the most popular actress of the early 1900s. Before the public knew actress' names, they dubbed her "The Girl With the Golden Curls" and "America's Sweetheart." She was the first woman to make a million dollars in a year and she was a pioneer in films. She is credited for creating acting for the camera, or realistic acting. Her film career spanned from the 1900s until the 1930s when she made her last screen appearance. Even afterward she kept up with business in her studio United Artists and was a producer and remained a household name.

This documentary features commentary by many of Mary's biographers and film historians including Eileen Whitfield, Scott Eyman, Jeanine Basinger, and Kevin Brownlow.

It is filled with rare photographs and some film clips from some of the more rare Pickford films including many Biograph shorts, the first Tess of the Storm Country, and Poor Little Rich Girl. However, it does skip over quite a few of Mary's films including those silents made after Little Annie Rooney even though the last, My Best Girl, is mentioned later.

The music used is very sad throughout which creates a dismal feeling for the audience. This is unfortunate because even though Mary went through tragedy and sadness especially in her later years, much of her life was happy and she was a very positive person.

This is by no means the best documentary available about Pickford's life, but no perfect documentary exists. For further information or explanation of Mary's life, one might try Mary Pickford: A Life on Film released by Milestone, but even it is not perfect. Neither mention Mary's writing or go into great depth about her relationship with her brother or sister or her sister's daughter Gwynne who lived with Mary. However, this documentary is adequate.