Heart O' the Hills

The latest installment in Milestone's Mary Pickford series is actually a double feature (with the plots of both pictures, ironically, hinging on murder trials), but for some reason the box obscures the fact by listing the second film merely as a bonus. The main drawing card is Heart O' the Hills from 1919, a picturesque tale in which America's Sweetheart, as she was called, plays a spunky Kentucky mountain girl who has many adventures while foiling a plot to steal her murdered father's land and winds up engaged to the neighbor boy who's always loved her. Also featuring a young John Gilbert, it's a charming piece, although the print isn't up to the quality of the best restored silents, and the tinting, usually a brownish gold but occasionally blue for nighttime scenes, accentuates the visual imperfections. The second feature on the disc is 1918's M'liss featuring Pickford as a tomboy with a lovable but alcoholic father in a mining town in the High Sierras, and once again the story revolves around a nefarious plan to steal a family fortune (an inheritance Pickford's character isn't aware is hers), as well as a romance with a newly-arrived schoolteacher. Again, the print is hardly pristine, but the picture itself is pleasant enough. DVD extras include stills galleries from both features and a DVD-ROM press kit. Recommended. [Note: two other Mary Pickford titles are newly available: Suds and Through the Back Door.] (F. Swietek)