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Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies
R0 - America - Cinema Libre Studio Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (4th August 2012). |
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The Film
 They called her America’s Sweetheart, a nickname coined by Cecil B. DeMille. The Girl with the curls. The Glad Girl. And Little Mary, too. Cinema's first movie star, she was famous the world over in her day (actually, she didn’t just belong to America; she had yet another nickname—The World’s Sweetheart). Before movies were really even a thing, and any other American entertainer mattered on the international stage, this woman won over the hearts of all who saw her. She starred in 140 short 1-reelers in the first four years of her career, which began in 1909. And would go on to headline more than 50 feature-length films before her retirement from acting in 1933 (and full retreat from Hollywood in the middle of the 20th century), producing half of those films through her own company. Actor, producer, writer, director… studio boss… she did it all in the movies, before most of it was something people knew you could do at all. Mary Pickford—born Gladys Marie Smith on April 8, 1892, in Toronto, Canada—is a name synonymous with movies. As well as it should be. Pickford’s rise to stardom and filmmaking’s assent into legitimacy, both as an art form and avenue of entertainment, are forever intertwined. Without Pickford, there’d be no United Artists—the production company and major movie studio she founded with Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks. She was one of the first 36 members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences; one of only three women in that original group. Pickford was awarded one of the very first Oscars—the second ever for Best Actress, and the first such award bestowed upon a “talkie”—for her role in “Coquette” (1929). She raised money for the war effort during World War I by selling bonds on tour. Was instrumental in the foundation of both The Motion Picture Relief Fund—which helped her fellow actors, who’d fallen to financial hardship—and the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, the first retirement community for aging actors. And is noted as the first actress to ever earn a $1 million paycheck for a part in a movie; the only, in history, to sign a deal that gave her 50-percent of the profits earned from her films. Pickford was powerful, perhaps the most powerful figure in the Hollywood of her day, and able to make choices that many, especially women, in the medium still don’t or can't today, because she had complete creative control over everything she put her name on. While married to Fairbanks—considered the “King of Hollywood” in his heyday, and the first president of AMPAS—she lived in a California castle, called Pickfair, where she hosted dinners attended by everyone from Albert Einstein and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Amelia Earhart and and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the Roaring 20's and early 30's, Pickford was Hollywood royalty; one half of the most powerful couple in the industry, at a time when movies, under their guidance, grew from the humble, short and silent beginnings into a more mature medium—one that begat epics, which ran for hours, not minutes, were presented with sync sound, and, eventually, even shot and shown in color. “Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies” then may as well be viewed as a chronicle of early cinema, much as it can Pickford and her career. The two are, almost, one in the same. Pickford’s story is a rags-to-riches rise to fame, trailed by a tragic fall from grace; truly, the stuff that movies are made of. Pickford’s father died while she was just a child, and her mother focused the family towards the stage as a way to make ends meet. As Baby Gladys, the girl soon to be Mary Pickford played alongside her siblings as a means to stave off starvation. Later, she appeared on Broadway in two plays before turning her attention to the promising phenomenon of motion pictures. In 1909, a young director at Biograph named D.W. Griffith—yes, the racist old great-grandfather of modern movie-dom; the man who defined what the medium really could be used for, for better or worse—cast Pickford in a minor role in a nickelodeon based on Robert Browning’s “Pippa Passes”. The rest, as they say, is history (literally). With Griffith, and others—along with famed sisters, and her childhood friends, Lillian and Dorothy Gish—Pickford established the language of motion pictures, refining acting for the screen by pushing it off the stage. Plays often proved to be the inspiration for many of the first cinematic works. Many of the earliest movies then were stiltedly acted, because they so slavishly adhered to the stage version on which they were based. But, Pickford was especially attuned to the fact that stage and film were different spheres, and that what was appropriate for one venue wasn’t necessarily correct for the other. She was a master of her craft, even occasionally playing more than one character. Which she perhaps most famously did in “Little Lord Fauntleroy” (1921), directed by Alfred E. Green and Pickford’s own brother Jack Pickford, where she played both Cedric Erroll and his widowed mother. Pickford played young well into her 30's, but the audiences loved it, and she was one of the most beloved people of her time. With the advent of sound cinema, the industry transitioned into “talkies” over a span of years, not decades, and everything changed in Hollywood almost overnight. Like many of her colleagues of the silent era, Pickford wasn’t as successful in sound, and retired from acting in 1933. Around that time Pickford and Fairbanks divorced, but she remained involved in the industry as a producer and continued to collaborate with her close friend Charlie Chaplin through their actor-director-owned studio United Artists. Eventually, Pickford retired completely and retreated from the public eye. In her final years, she battled alcoholism and depression, sealing herself behind the wall of protection Pickfair provided her and her third husband, actor Charles “Buddy” Rogers, whom she married in 1937. They remained together for the next 42 years. Pickford died in 1979 of a cerebral hemorrhage. In the late 1980's, director and editor Nicholas Eliopoulos came to know Buddy Rogers. In their time and talks together, Rogers revealed to Eliopoulos a treasure trove of archival recordings; among them Pickford’s many reminisces and remembrances of her life and career. Eliopoulos became enamored with the idea of using Pickford’s voice on these worn tapes and reels to tell her own story, hoping to bring the actress and her legacy to the masses in an innovative and intimate way. To say he’s succeeded is an understatement, and “The Muse of the Movies” is without a doubt a thoroughly satisfying send up to the magnificent Mary Pickford. Basically, Eliopoulos delivers a by-the-book biography of Pickford through her movies and an astronomical amount of archival footage, featuring Rogers, Fairbanks, Chaplin, Paramount boss Adolph Zukor, and many more, including at times, Pickford through her own voice. By doing this—occasionally bridging the rough reels of old celluloid and aged interviewees with narration by Michael York—he highlights Pickford’s place in early cinematic history through the words of those who knew her best. “The Muse of the Movies” is a 20-year labor of love. Eliopoulos dug through hundreds of hours of archival audio and filmed interviews, and even recorded new material, exclusive to this documentary—most notably the first and only on screen interview with Roxanne Rogers Monroe, Pickford’s adopted daughter (who is now dead), in which she talks about her mother. A considerable amount of time was spent finding funding for the film and restoring the Pickford tapes to suitable quality. But, in a way, the lengthy production cycle on the documentary has lessened, somewhat, the novelty of the whole “through her own words” approach. What, in the 80's, was unheard of has now been done a dozen times (not with this subject, but documentaries on other topics have certainly used a similar structure). And, it needs to be said that, “Muse” feels incomplete because it neglects much of Pickford’s late-in-life tragedies. Eliopoulos rationalizes his rosy rumination on Pickford’s successes, while turning a blind eye to her alcoholic isolationism, in the supplements by pointing out that much of what we know about her post-Hollywood story is based in rumor and hearsay—there weren’t many interviews in which Pickford’s friends and colleagues set out to defame, or discuss her failings, so the director was stuck. Fine. But that doesn’t change the fact that his movie only tells part of an industry icon’s story. "Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies" is a really good documentary, but I hesitate to call it great. Informative, sure, and excellently edited overall, too. It just sort of feels like a reel or two is missing at the end; as if the chronicle was cut short by a surreptitious biographer who only wanted the positives in print.
Video
The 1.33:1 transfer—comprised of photographs, publicity stills, clips from Pickford’s many films, old home movies and archival interviews—does the best it can with the source. The footage and photos are in various states, some dating as far back as 1910 or earlier, and others, much more recent (interviews recorded within the last 30 years). Parts are quite clean, while many moments show their 80-plus-year-old age. The predominately black and white image looks perfectly fine… at least as a standard definition rendering of film footage sometimes almost as old as the medium.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track is a no frills experience. Some might be surprised—considering Pickford was a silent movie star—by the amount of “dialog” in “The Muse of the Movies”. But, Michael York’s narration is clean, and Eliopoulos’ restoration of the original Pickford recordings sounds quite good, considering the age of some of it. A bit hollow and with a slight hiss, here and there, sure, but Pickford’s reminisces are always intelligible and very interesting. The film has an original score by composer David Michael Frank. There are no subtitles or alternate audio tracks on the disc.
Extras
Like many documentaries, “Mary Pickford: The Muse of Movies” doesn’t have a lot of extras. Fortunately, it has some that are worthwhile. But nothing in the supplements screams out as awesomely enlightening. The two best extras are a "Q&A" featurette with the director and his interview from a radio show, but both are short (less than 30 minutes, combined runtime) and have some overlap in content. A menu labeled “The Cast” houses 14 text biographies for a number of notable names of early cinema and a few others, whom appear in “Muse” in some way. These include: - Mary Pickford. - Charles “Buddy” Rogers. - Douglas Fairbanks. - Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - Charlie Chaplin. - D.W. Griffith. - Lillian Gish. - Amelia Earhart. - Adolph Zukor. - Roxanne Monroe. - Walt Disney. - Lionel Barrymore. - Mack Sennett. - Michael York A photo gallery (23 images) of old black-and-white frames from Pickford’s life, on and off set, is also included. “Question & Answer with Nicholas Eliopoulos” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 15 minutes 9 seconds) is a Q&A featurette with the director of “The Muse of Movies”, filmed at the Toronto International Film Festival on July 1, 2011. ‘On Film’ interview with Nicholas Eliopoulos (13 minutes 41 seconds) is an audio interview from a radio show with the director talking about how his history as a sound editor and how be became interested in making a movie about Mary Pickford using her own voice. The disc also has the following pre-menu bonus trailers for: - “London River” (1.78:1 widescreen, 1 minute 29 seconds). - “No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos” (1.78:1 widescreen, 2 minutes 4 seconds). - “Norman Mailer: The American” (1.78:1 widescreen, 2 minutes 25 seconds).
Packaging
“Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies” comes to home video from Cinema Libre Studio. The packaging is marked Region 0 and the disc is playable around the world. (Note: video is encoded in NTSC format).
Overall
Those interested in Mary Pickford or the history of early cinema will, obviously, get the most out of “The Muse of the Movies”. It’s a by-the-book biography, but is certainly interesting. While Eliopoulos’ approach—using old recordings of Pickford, which allows the iconic actress to tell part of her own story—isn’t, exactly, novel, it gives the documentary more depth. The audio and video on Cinema Libre’s DVD are nothing special, and the special features aren’t much. But, on the basis of the film, and Pickford’s place in movie history, “Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies” is recommended.
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