Little Annie Rooney

Mary Pickford became one of the biggest superstars of the silent era playing plucky girls and innocent teenagers who triumph over adversity. At the age of 33, after her attempts at more adult roles resulted in declining box office, she wrote (under a pseudonym), produced, and starred in Little Annie Rooney as the titular 12-year-old tomboy daughter of a benevolent Irish cop in the slums of New York. When her father is killed by a gangster, Annie’s brother goes on a mission of revenge while she and her friends sleuth out the real killer. There's also a puppy love romance between Annie (a child played by an adult actress) and young gangster Joe (William Haines)—a silent movie convention that hasn't aged well. Director William Beaudine, who was gifted with young performers, delivers an energetic production filled with action and humor. The kids of Annie's ethnically diverse New York gang—along with the Irish and Italians, there are children of Jewish, African American, Chinese, and Greek immigrants—all live together in the same overcrowded tenement building like a Bowery version of the United Nations, and while the ethnic clichés are unsophisticated, it is a rare silent film to embrace such a rainbow coalition. It was one of the biggest hits of 1925 and returned Pickford to the top of the box office. Restored from Pickford's personal 35mm print in 2014, the film features an original score composed by Andy Gladbach. Recommended. [Note: the 1915 Mary Pickford film Fanchon the Cricket is also newly available in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo set.] (S. Axmaker)