Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies

Several previous films have explored the life and career of Mary Pickford, but Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies is likely to remain the definitive documentary about the brightest female star of the silent film era. Pickford was also a true pioneer of cinema, prompting director George Cukor to say “she invented screen acting.” What Cukor meant was that the Canadian-born Pickford (1892-1979) was the first performer in “flickers” to favor (and demand) naturalism over the kind of exaggerated, overly theatrical acting style that dominated the first decade of movies. In fact, Pickford's life was full of firsts: she was the first woman to gain complete creative control over her career (by 1915, when the whole world knew her as “America's Sweetheart”); the first actress to earn a $1 million salary; the only movie star to gain a 50% profit share of her movies; and the first to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in the sound-movie era (for 1929's early “talkie,” Coquette). Her long association with pioneering film director D.W. Griffith led in 1919 to her joining Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Charlie Chaplin to form United Artists, the first Hollywood studio controlled by creative talent. An astute businesswoman, Pickford was crucially mentored by Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor, and her marriage to Fairbanks (after a semi-scandalous affair) made them the “Brangelina” power couple of 1920s Hollywood. In the 2011 Toronto Film Festival Q&A session included here as a bonus feature (along with an NPR audio-only interview), director Nicholas Eliopoulos readily admits that his film is a “valentine” to Pickford, one that features rare archival material—most notably, interviews of Pickford, who “narrates” the film along with actor Michael York. Other archival interviewees include Zukor, Lillian Gish, Amelia Earhart (who admired Pickford as a groundbreaking feminist), Buddy Rogers (Pickford's third husband), Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and the only onscreen interview with Pickford's daughter, Roxanne Rogers Monroe. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)