Palaces of the Night(1st Edition) Canada's Grand Theatres by John C. Lindsay Paperback, 228 Pages, Published 1999 by Lynx Images Inc ISBN-13: 978-1-894073-17-2, ISBN: 1-894073-17-7
"America's Sweetheart, Mary Pickford, stars as Annie, a tough girl from the bad part of town who calls on her gang of fellow hoodrats to help find out who shot her policeman father. Annie's brother Tim (Gordon Griffith) suspects it was her boyfriend (William Haines), so now she must endeavor to find the real killer to prove his innocence. Another gem from one of the silver screen's most popular stars of all time!"
"The heart of this spunky, sweetly beautiful film is lovely, feisty Mary Pickford, of the baby face, lush curls, and sturdy little body. Pickford is Amarilly Jenkins, a poor lass from San Francisco's Clothes-Line Alley, hard by Chinatown. She's proud of her heritage, a long line of Irish washerwomen: "I likes scrubbin'!" She's content in her poverty, sharing "Irish turkey" (meatloaf?) dinners with her roly-poly ma, played by Kate Price-- ..."
"Mary Pickford plays two roles in this film; it is a testament to her phenomenal acting talent that we really see her as two completely different characters. In the title role of Stella Maris, Pickford portrays a lovely young woman, paralyzed from childhood, whose wealthy, aristocratic parents have kept her utterly sheltered from the ugly realities of the outside world. As poor little orphan girl Unity Blake, Pickford is literally unreco ..."
"Tess of the Storm Country might be seen as the archetypal Mary Pickford film. Pickford plays Tessibel Skinner, a dirt-poor fisherman's daughter living with a community of squatters in ramshackle huts by the water's edge. Tess was reportedly one of Pickford's favorite roles (both in this 1922 version and in an earlier one, shot in 1914), and it shows. She brings a sparkling energy to her performance. Dressed in rags, her hair a frazzled ..."
"Mary Pickford produced and stars in this absorbing melodrama, as Mama Molly, tomboy guardian to a tribe of abused orphans on a "baby farm" in a Gothic southern swamp. "The Devil's share in the world's creation," the swamp is a truly frightening place, with bottomless bog holes that suck up anything thrown into them in a matter of moments. The baby farm's proprietor, Grimes (Gustave von Seyffertitz), is the embodiment of evil, so mean he ..."
"In My Best Girl, Mary Pickford demonstrates the winsome charm that won her the title "America's Sweetheart." She plays Maggie Johnson, a sensible stockroom girl at Merrill's, a five-and-ten-cent store. This is the heyday of the big five-and-dimes and Robert Merrill (Hobart Bosworth), the store's wealthy owner, is clearly a stand-in for F.W. Woolworth. The opening shot of Maggie displays Pickford's prodigious gift for physical comedy. Sh ..."
"In Daddy-Long-Legs, Mary Pickford plays an orphan, Jerusha (Judy) Abbott, abandoned as a baby in an alley and raised in a cruel orphanage. The scenes in the orphanage are extraordinary. Pickford, although in her late '20s when the film was shot, is absolutely believable as a pigtailed 12-year-old; she's the epitome of a child-woman, the essence of gamine. Protector and champion of her fellow orphans--truly adorable kiddies dressed in id ..."
"America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford, in a powerful story of survival. In this all-fired melodrama, wealthy Elias Graves builds a house on a hill and tries unsuccessfully to evict the squatters who live in the valley below. Tess (Pickford) leads the squatters' struggle for survival and wins the sympathy and love of Graves's son, Frederick. This 1922 remake of Pickford's 1914 version of the same story demonstrates the remarkable growth of ..."
"In Daddy-Long-Legs, Mary Pickford plays an orphan, Jerusha (Judy) Abbott, abandoned as a baby in an alley and raised in a cruel orphanage. The scenes in the orphanage are extraordinary. Pickford, although in her late '20s when the film was shot, is absolutely believable as a pigtailed 12-year-old; she's the epitome of a child-woman, the essence of gamine. Protector and champion of her fellow orphans--truly adorable kiddies dressed in id ..."
"Mary Pickford is the cinema's true Peter Pan. She played spunky waifs and adolescent spitfires well into adulthood and remains best remembered as the crusading orphan raging against ruthless villains and natural disasters with pluck, courage, and hope. Sparrows is quintessential Pickford, the tale of a ragtag collection of orphans made virtual slaves by a gnarled, swamp-dwelling Simon Legree. As the big sister/mother hen of the grimy br ..."