American Experience (TV Series) Mary Pickford (2005) User Reviews

Well Done Yet Disappointing Telling of the Pickford Legend

[HarlowMGM · 7/10 · 20 February 2012]

This well-done documentary on the life and career of the greatest female star of the silent era (by far) is quite good but frankly should have been much better. It's biggest flaw is it's absurd A STAR IS BORN type spin, trying to make a tragic spin on Pickford's life, following the lead of author Scott Eyman (who is among the interviewees) in his mediocre biography, telling us "she lost it all" and was "forgotten". She hardly lost it all - she was a multi-millionairess throughout her adult life, a very active presence at United Artists into the 1950's, and remained a very well known name to the general public right up to the end of her life even if generations of Americans hadn't seen her in any films. Pickford hadn't lost her audience, simply a new generation had come along, the same as would happen to any other actress with time.

Pickford certainly wasn't "the first has been" as this film alleges - not only were there many silent superstars who immediately tanked upon their first talkie release (Pickford had a fairly successful sound career for about five years) but there were quite a few silent mega-legends whose careers didn't even make it out of the silent era. While Douglas Fairbanks was certainly the love of her life, the movie downplays the quite successful marriage to Buddy Rogers and the stardom of first husband Owen Moore (a fairly big name in the 1910's and one whose chemistry with Pickford it's quite palpable in their films together, which are just brushed off quickly here). Yet perhaps the nadir is the ageist take on Pickford's appearance (on film) at the 1976 Academy Awards as if the world in unison was "horrified" at seeing a octogenarian on their television screens (actually it was pretty much just select Hollywood journalists with this opinion, the rest of the world no doubt was of the opinion that an 84-year-old is not expected to look or speak like the clock had stopped decades ago.)

The highlight of the film is some truly extraordinary and rare candid film footage throughout Pickford's life. And she sounds terrific in a 1975 audio recording that one wishes had been used more in the production. The many clips from her early short films should had been identified though their inclusion is much appreciated. The pace of the film is brisk and Laura Linney's narration is superb even if she is on occasion made to read some fairly purple prose. Ultimately though one is saddened the writers and producers decided to go for a melancholy rather than triumphant spin on the career of the motion picture phenomenon.

Small-town Cinema Queen

[Goingbegging · 8/10 · 2 January 2015]

When Mary Pickford invited the German film director Ernst Lubitsch over to America, it was a shrewd move - for Lubitsch. He would go on to film many hits, but not with Mary. Their one feature, also her first talkie, was acclaimed by critics and by big-city audiences. Yet it flopped in the mass of small-town cinemas which were her true domain, as she was the first to notice, being a businesswoman as much as an actress, eternally scrutinising and cultivating the market.

This seems a significant clue to her limitations as a performer. The talkie revolution would spell the end of the glory days, both for her career and her high-profile second marriage to Douglas Fairbanks. And perhaps, in any case, it was unseemly for her to go on into middle age, still trying to portray the little curly-haired girl character with which she had effectively launched the world's first full-length films as a teenager, although she said this gave her the childhood she had never had.

That's another clue to Pickford. Not only having to act on the stage from the age of seven, but effectively carrying the rest of her (fatherless) family, when it turned out that it was Mary's looks and talent alone that would earn their keep. Sure enough, the money started to roll in, but with the usual cost to a child star - total lack of schooling and a superficial sense of maturity that boded ill for later. For when the phone eventually stopped ringing, she lamented truthfully enough "Work has been my life. I don't know how to fill the void." She made a third marriage to the cheerful young bandleader Buddy Rogers, which lasted 42 years, but Fairbanks' shadow hung heavy over the relationship, and it wasn't enough. She got religion for a while, and wrote a book called 'Why not try God?' But in the end, as with all her family before her, she reached for the bottle, staying increasingly reclusive at the splendid Pickfair mansion, with no sightings for years on end. I suppose it was asking too much for them not to show the tragic last clip of her receiving an Honorary Academy Award at home at eighty-four, but it was a saddening spectacle indeed.

There's one irony about her marital life. At nineteen, she makes strong rapport with her handsome Irish co-star Owen Moore, whom her mother dislikes and won't have in the house. Mary says that if they'd been allowed to get to know him, they would probably have detected his vices and cooled off the idea of marriage. As it was, she ran off with him, only to discover that he was a drunken wife-beater, jealous of her success, who made her miserable for years.

That was one instance of trouble in paradise. But in case Pickford's movies ever mislead you into viewing that whole era as an age of innocence, you are brought down to earth here by some of the less wholesome methods by which her boss Adolph Zukor out-manoeuvred the competition. One trick was the physical wrecking of the other guy's cinemas in order to buy them up cheap. It was for that sort of reason that Pickford helped to form United Artists, a production and distribution company that was independent of the big studios, causing someone to coin the phrase "the lunatics have taken over the asylum."

Barring any startling revelations, there could never be a great documentary about Pickford, only a good one, with the usual sequence of old clips and new commentary. This one more-or-less measures up, though there are some omissions. We are left unsure at what point she moved from New York to Hollywood. And it is worth knowing that her younger brother and sister, whom she brought with her, were both believed to be quite talented, but were hopelessly overshadowed by her fame. Also it might have been explained that a botched operation had left her sterile for life, and that her adoption of two children was not a success.

Perhaps the subject of this film would be bound to encourage some of the banal comments and clichés that we mainly hear, though her biographer Scott Eyman compensates for this with some good terse dialogue, well thought-through.

Entertaining and informative.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 10/10 · 7 April 2005]

This entertaining and informative documentary about silent-film star Mary Pickford was produced for the PBS television series 'American Experience'. Some appetising film clips (and one radio interview) of Pickford have been expertly compiled with sound bites from film scholars.

I'm very impressed with how documentarian Sue Williams co-ordinated the time-lines of Pickford's life and career. I'd known that Pickford was deeply attached to her mother, but -- until I saw this documentary -- I hadn't realised that her mother's death was the incident that prompted Pickford to stop playing little-girl roles. Also, this documentary includes the first photo I've ever seen of Pickford's father, who died when she was very young.

But we get the usual shenanigans for documentaries of this sort: modern actors, with their faces concealed, re-enact events in the lives of Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks. A vintage photograph of a New York City street is jiggled in front of a rostrum camera while little white dots are superimposed, to counterfeit silent-film footage of a snowfall. More impressive here is a sequence during the period when Pickford was a touring stage actress: we see old movie footage from the subjective viewpoint of a speeding railway train, inter-cut with a rostrum camera panning across early 20th-century maps of U.S. cities.

There are delightful clips from several Pickford films, in superb condition, but the clips are uncaptioned, and only a few are identified in Laura Linney's narration. And there are some peculiar omissions. We are told quite a bit about Pickford's siblings Lottie and Jack, yet this documentary never mentions that they both had screen careers of their own. (Admittedly, neither became a star, and their film careers were purely dependent on Mary's: still, this should have been mentioned.) The makers of this documentary tracked down a copy of the playbill for Mary Pickford's Broadway debut ... yet, oddly, the narration never identifies the play, and the rostrum camera pans obliquely across the playbill so that we can't see the entire title. (It's 'The Warrens of Virginia', but I knew that from other sources. You won't learn it from this documentary.) Future director Cecil B. DeMille was in the cast of this play, written by his brother William: how odd that the documentary doesn't mention this.

Another thing I hadn't known (until this documentary told me) was that Pickford had a recurring nightmare in which she performed on the stage of a theatre with no audience. We see that re-enacted here: I would have preferred to see some sourcing for this information. Did Pickford ever confide her nightmare to anyone? Also, we're told that the phrase 'by the clock' was an intimate code message between Pickford and Fairbanks: again, what's the source for information that Pickford was unlikely to confide to anyone? An odd oversight here: the transition to talking films is discussed with no mention of the fact that Pickford's last silent film was 'My Best Girl', in which her leading man was Charles 'Buddy' Rogers (whom I met once). Later, after Pickford's divorce from Fairbanks in the talkie period, the narration retroactively mentions 'My Best Girl' and Rogers for the first time, while informing us that Rogers became Pickford's final husband.

In this documentary's favour, the talking heads are (for once) actual authorities on their subject rather than merely people with opinions. One commentator is Eileen Whitfield, author of an excellent biography of Pickford. Ms Whitfield -- a Goldie Hawn lookalike with a distinctive hairstyle -- is apparently an actress wanna-be: she oddly *acts out* several of Pickford's conversations, rather than just telling us about them.

Some of the talking heads make portentous statements that are inaccurate. We're told that Mary Pickford 'invented film acting'. This would come as a surprise to Lillian Gish. We're also told that Pickford 'lost everything'. Wrong again: she kept her mansion and her vast real-estate holdings, retaining the devotion of fans while she faded from public view ... and she remained in a loving and stable marriage with Rogers until her death. Very few silent-era film stars had as much fulfilment (and wealth) in their post-career lives as Mary Pickford had in hers.

Late in this documentary, there's a brief sequence that made me cringe but which was probably a necessary inclusion: the notorious film clip of Pickford from the 1975 Academy Awards broadcast. At this point she was a deluded recluse, isolated in her mansion. In hindsight, the Academy realised it was a mistake to show this frail old woman on television, but -- since the footage exists -- this documentary was probably justified in including it.

I wish this documentary had mentioned a bizarre fact: when Billy Wilder was casting the role of deluded has-been silent-film star Norma Desmond in 'Sunset Boulevard', he visited Mary Pickford at Pickfair to offer her the part ... then he made the eerie realisation that Pickford had very largely *become* that person herself.

I also wish that this documentary had quoted film historian David Shipman's observation: if popularity is the measure of stardom, then Mary Pickford remains the single greatest movie star who ever lived. Despite its flaws, I'll rate this excellent documentary 10 out of 10.

Remarkable. Devastating.

[blanche-2 · 9/10 · 5 April 2005]

This is a not to be missed story of one of the most remarkable women ever to hit films - Mary Pickford. Not only was she a brilliant actress and a beautiful woman, but an astonishing businesswoman and visionary. Pickford formed United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks (her soon to be husband) and Charlie Chaplin in order to fight the stranglehold Adolf Zukor had on the film industry. This was decades before actors began forming their own production companies.

Pickford reached the heights of fame and became the first bona fide movie star, and, as this marvelous documentary points out, film's first has-been. As she aged and could no longer play sweet young things, and with the advent of sound and the jazz age, America's sweetheart lost her audience. They never came back.

It's always amazing to watch the stories of people like Pickford, Welles, and Garbo, who enjoyed fame at a young age and then spent the next half century either retired or trying to recapture lost glory. Pickford's story is especially sad. She was innovative, vibrant, and street smart. She was part of the exciting development of the new medium of film, and gradually found there was no place for her in it. Sobering. Fascinating. See "Mary Pickford" and appreciate this icon.

Mary Pickford was an interesting enough "American Experience" for me to warrant her films a look

[tavm · 10/10 · 24 March 2008]

Just watched the "American Experience" episode on Mary Pickford. Having not yet watched a movie of hers in its entirety, I was fascinated seeing her life and career unfold in chronological order from her first role on the road with her siblings Jack and Lotte when she was just 12 or 13 to her stop on Broadway with an audition for the legendary David Belasco to acting for fellow movie pioneer director D. W. Griffith to driving a hard bargain with movie mogul Adolph Zukor to become Paramount's biggest star at the time to forming United Artists with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and her eventual second husband Douglas Fairbanks, and, finally, to her later decline after talkies and aging made her a recluse in her mansion, Pickfair. We also hear about her first husband Owen Moore, a fellow actor who couldn't handle his wife's popularity and her third and last one Buddy Rogers who helped his wife handle retirement to the end of her days. We also hear Ms. Pickford in her few talkies and in an interview she conducted in 1957. Then there's her acceptance of an honorary Oscar from her home. She didn't look bad but having been been out of commission for a decade, she probably seemed pathetic to both the theater and home audience. Had she not peaked during the silent era, maybe she would have adjusted in talkies. Now that I've seen this, I hope to see some of her movies. So, all in all, this was a fine episode of "The American Experience."

A Lot of Great Information

[Michael_Elliott · 10 February 2017]

American Experience: Mary Pickford (2005)

This episode of the wonderful series takes a look at the rise and eventual fall of silent screen legend Mary Pickford.

If you're unfamiliar with who Pickford was then you'll get a great education here as you get to hear about her childhood, her relationship with her brother and mother and how she broke into the movies with D.W. Griffith. From here we get some wonderful stories about her rise in the business and how she became the biggest name in Hollywood. Her relationship with Douglas Fairbanks is discussed as well as her final films and later years in life.

As I said, there's a great bit of information to be gained by watching this so those unfamiliar with the work of Pickford will get to see some great film clips as well as plenty of stories about her private life as well as her time on the screen. One wishes that more time was devoted to her life after Hollywood but this is still a very good documentary on the subject.

Episode: A-

The life of Mary Pickford

[Petey-10 · 10/10 · 6 June 2007]

Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a star in the silent era.She was friends with Charlie Chaplin and married to Douglas Fairbanks.The American Experience: Mary Pickford (2005) tells the story of this American Sweetheart.Laura Linney is the narrator of this biography.This is a truly fascinating documentary.And how couldn't it be? Mary Pickford had a fascinating life.There were moments of joy and moments of sorrow.In 1976 Mary was awarded with an Honorary Academy Award.It's really touching to watch the older and fragile looking Mary speaking those words.She was a star once.But even the brightest stars don't shine forever.

retread

[nataloff-1 · 5/10 · 7 August 2013]

If one can ignore the annoying re-creations, puerile writing, and gossipy interviews (with two exceptions), this is a dewy-eyed look at Mary Pickford's life and films from which Mary Pickford herself might have flinched. Not that she was a harlot in sweetheart's clothing, but by stressing the bathos instead of the drama in this brilliant actress/businesswoman's career, the filmmakers never demonstrate why Pickford was such an icon, although they say it a lot. What's interesting, upon second viewing, is noticing how hard the documentary struggles to wring sentiment out of a life that was largely (if you read her autobiography, which I have) devoid of it. There is no mention, for example, of Mary's work with the motion picture Academy or her threat to destroy all her films lest they be laughed at by modern audiences. The best thing in this show is Tom Phillips' attentive musical score. It needs more voices and less idolatry.

Assembly line misery

[LuvSopr · 4/10 · 21 November 2015]

The first half of this documentary, detailing Mary Pickford's upbringing, first marriage, and career path, is decent enough, but from around the time they zero in on her mother's death, you can tell where they are going - a subpar rehash that reminds the viewer of this program debuting in an era when "True Hollywood Story" and endless other Biography-style offshoots had produced a race to who could be the most maudlin and faux-meaningful.

I don't know if anyone would claim Mary Pickford had a happy life, or that the last 30 or 40 years of her life were a time she treasured; just the opposite, really. Unfortunately, none of this is told with any love or care, the way that similar documentaries about Marion Davies or Olive Thomas (ladies who did not exactly have fun, fun, fun lives themselves) were told. Instead, this biography is the equivalent of the person you're stuck next to at a party who always has a story of how miserable and burdened they are and how they were sure nothing good would ever happen, and sure enough, it didn't.

Pickford's career didn't just end - no, she was a complete failure in any attempts to keep going. Pickford didn't just lose Douglas Fairbanks - no, Buddy Rogers was a martyr to the man that got away, constantly reminded by her that he was not her true love.

The nadir is when they try to make hay of Oscar viewers being shocked by her appearance when accepting an honorary award in the late '70s. What a revelation - viewers shocked at an 85-year old woman looking feeble.

Just stick to reading Mary Pickford's Wikpedia profile. Other than some good clips and discussion of some of her fights over her films, you won't miss much.