Star Power

Trivia tidbit: Gladys Smith, hailing from Toronto, Canada, became the first woman in America to earn over a million dollars in one year. Better known as Mary Pickford, the diminutive actress would join forces in 1919 with Charles Chaplin, future husband Douglas Fairbanks and legendary director D.W. Griffith to form United Artists, an artistic and financial response to the "crank ‘em out" studio system. Star Power, narrated by Roddy McDowell, combines interview clips with film historian Marc Wanamaker and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., wonderful archival film footage of work by the four principal "united" artists both prior to and following the creation of UA, and an interesting and incisive script. Viewers will discover how each of the four artists truly advanced the motion picture arts in their own ways: Griffith, who pioneered many of the cinematic techniques we take for granted today; Chaplin, who understood that character development was the key to great comedy; Pickford, who proved that less is more, when it came to close-ups; and Fairbanks, who took the action picture to (literally) new heights with his virtuoso stunts. An entertaining, informative slice of film history. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)