The Riches of Mary Pickford
This is a wonderful collection of Mary Pickford films, and it's a shame that the rating has been spoiled by two rather querulous reviews. All three films are classics of the silent era and among Pickford's greatest. In fact, this set serves as a splendid introduction to Pickford's work as all three films represent different aspects of Pickford's cinema persona.
"The Poor Little Rich Girl" is the first film in which Mary Pickford plays a little girl over the course of an entire film, and it remains one of her best. It also marks the first time she works with screenwriter Frances Marion, who would become Pickford's closest collaborator over the next several years. "The Poor Little Rich Girl" is a remarkable evocation of childhood, capturing the wonder, the terror, and the ludic abandon of being a child more successfully than any film of its era.
In "The Hoodlum," Pickford plays a girl several years older than Gwendolyn and decidedly more tomboyish. Amy Burke is...
Mary Pickford - Rags and Riches Collection
Gladys Marie Smith, better known as Mary Pickford (1892-1979), was one Hollywood's first female megastars, a Canadian actress which would be known as "America's Sweetheart." Throughout her life, she starred in 52 films, ending her acting career in 1933, after the arrival of sound, to which she could not adapt. She was also called "The Girl with the Curls," which allowed her to play children, even in her twenties. Her power and popularity in the industry was also a key in her being one of the founders of United Artists, together with actor/comedian Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks (her popular actor and husband), and director D.W. Griffith. She was also one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "Mary Pickford - Rags and Riches Collection" is an awesome collection that comprises three of Pickford's best films, and one of her movie shorts. In them, you will witness the greatness of her acting and extreme charisma in the high quality images of the...
Poor coding / authoring
I was extremely disappointed upon receiving this collection. These movies, all obviously from the pre-widescreen era, have been either formatted or encoded to display in a pseudo-widescreen format (meaning that they aren't 4:3, and display on my widescreen television not quite to either outer edge of the screen). I can only assume, based on this format, that some information has been lost top and bottom, as these movies were released in a 4:3 format.
I wrote to Milestone and they responded by telling me that the authoring was done to accomodate the needless "kid friendly" introductions. This makes little sense, as every other classic movie release is formatted such that the display quickly changes from widescreen for the FBI warning and/or menu, to a correctly formatted movie. There is no reason they couldn't have done that here.
Given that Milestone simultaneously released their Charley Chase collection formatted correctly, I can't understand why they put this...
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