Always Our Best Girl

We have spoken many times about Gladys Smith Moore Fairbanks Rogers, also known as "America’s Sweetheart", "The Girl With the Golden Curls", or by the name that made her the most famous woman in the world—Mary Pickford. We have written about her in this blog, discussed her in our book, Douglas Fairbanks, and had the privilege of talking about her at length in an audio essay on the upcoming DVD release of her 1926 masterpiece, Sparrows. After all this, what more is there to say about "Our Mary"?

Plenty.

And having just returned from a celebration of her centenary in motion pictures, we feel compelled to say it.

The celebration encompassed her nearly twenty-year silent film career, from her earliest Biograph shorts--such as Willful Peggy (1910)--to her silent screen valedictory, the sublime romantic comedy, My Best Girl (1927). In between, Pickford played an astoundingly wide range of roles--from queens to street urchins to social pariahs to the Virgin Mary (the last one at the request of her husband, Douglas Fairbanks...draw your own conclusions). This amazing repertoire of characters makes it all the more frustrating that when she is remembered today, it is usually as a childhood ideal of sweetness and virtue. This error has more to do with other actresses who reprised her great roles in the sound era (ie: Shirley Temple) than it has to do with the actress herself. Pickford is guilty by association. Anyone who takes even a cursory glimpse at her greatest work instantly discovers that Pickford, while always possessing a core of decency, was more often than not Hell on Wheels. Just try watching the first fifteen minutes of Little Annie Rooney (1925) and not be stunned by the violence of its opening scene. Or the revengeful final moments of her Unity Blake character in 1918's Stella Maris. Or Pickford as Mama Molly, ferociously protecting her family of fellow "orphants" from a sociopath in Sparrows. It was no accident that she played Tess of the Storm Country twice; one go-round in the skin of the whirling dervish was apparently not enough.

But far more disturbing than the misrepresentation of her legacy is its depreciation. Pickford was film's first superstar for a reason: there was no one like her before or since. She was mesmerizing: funny, touching, infuriating, lovable, insufferable pitiable, and beguiling... frequently at the same time. For example: My Best Girl. As Maggie, the poor shop girl unwittingly in love with the boss's son, she is achingly romantic: at turns giddily idealistic, then tenacious, and finally heartbreakingly vulnerable. In Sparrows, though mired in Gothic horror, she is quick-silver: a child/woman of profound innocence yet startling spiritual wisdom. The breathtaking complexities of character that she conveys are even more startling when one remembers that she did it all in silence. Wearing her emotions like a badge of honor, she didn't need words. Her face did her talking.

That so gifted an actress is regulated to the myth of "sweetness and light" is distressing. That so great a pioneer is neglected and close to forgotten is downright criminal. And we’re not speaking merely of her business accomplishments (which are indeed staggering in themselves). We are speaking of her pioneering work in the art of screen acting. Before Pickford, subtlety and truth in film acting was as foreign a concept as stereophonic sound. She and her first director, D.W. Griffith, were
frequently at odds over how to play a scene: he wanted grand gesture; she gave simplicity. She intuitively understood that the relationship between the motion picture performer and audience was intensely personal, and trusted that if she were truly feeling the emotions required of the scene, then her audience would too. No embellishment was necessary. Decades after she retired from acting, director George Cukor, perhaps the most perceptive connoisseur of talent in Hollywood, was on target when he referred to Mary Pickford as the first "method" actress.

But don't --please don't-- take our word for it. Go and find out for yourself. If you're not lucky enough to find one of the rare screenings of one of her great films, then rent one --buy one--download one--just WATCH one. Even on a small screen, or in the most careworn print, the magic of Pickford reaches out from the screen to lift you away. There have been many "girls" throughout the first hundred years of cinema who have captured our collective imagination. But Mary Pickford stands alone, because she was our first.

...and there is always a special place in your heart for your first.

Love is All Around...again...AT LAST!

Twentieth Century Fox has finally—after a two year hiatus—released the complete Fifth Season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. This one was a long time coming, and it is totally due to the diligence and persistence of lovers of classic television that it happened at all. So pat yourselves on the back for a job WELL DONE!

The brief back story is this: Fox had previously released Seasons 1 – 4 at a rate of about one per year, but began dragging their feet when the time came for season 5. Fox –never in the vanguard of releasing the classic TV titles that they own—decided that they wouldn’t release Season 5, but would instead release the complete series on DVD, thus causing those who had already purchased seasons 1- 4 to have to re-buy discs they had already spent their hard earned money on.

Well, you could have heard the uproar all they way to Minneapolis!

Their outrage was palpable enough for Fox to concede and reverse their position, advising they would indeed release Season 5 as its own set. Which is what they did –and that is it. Anyone looking for any fun and informative extras, such as commentaries, interviews, and mini docs had better forget it. The packaging itself is underwhelming; but in these difficult economic times let’s just be glad that it was released at all. And let’s face it, if ever a series didn’t need extra dressing to make it digestible it is MTM. The episodes alone are MORE than enough.

As any lover of classic television knows, MTM’s sixth and penultimate season is truly its pinnacle –culminating in what is arguably the greatest sitcom episode in television history, "Chuckles Bites the Dust". But it is Season Five that lays the groundwork. Yes, it is the first season without Rhoda (Valerie Harper left to star in Rhoda), but it is also the first season with Betty White’s Sue Ann Nivens as a regular, and it is Cloris Leachman’s final bow as Phyllis before departing for Phyllis. (The notoriously undisciplined and brilliant actress gives her some of her most hilarious performances this year, culminating in another win for the record-setting Emmy winner). With the departure of Rhoda, the producers of the show (the redoubtable James L Brooks and Alan Burns) wisely chose not to give Mary another best friend/confidant, but to shift the primary focus of the stories to WJM and Mary’s already well established work “family”. It is really at this point that The Mary Tyler Moore Show began its rise to iconic status as exemplar of the 1970s "independent career woman" program. With her career now the primary focus, Mary Richards truly comes into her own this season as an assured, confident, and, yes--sexy woman. Whether asserting her journalistic integrity and facing a possible prison sentence, standing up to Ted’s ridiculously amorous advances once she’s made a WJM Producer, or befriending a former prostitute turned disastrous dress designer, Mary Richard's new found maturity gave yet another level to the already richly developed characterizations on the show (and assured Moore her eighth Emmy nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy Series).

But there was more to Mary Tyler Moore than Mary Tyler Moore, and it is in this season that the relationships between all the characters grow truer, deeper, and more complex. The show's humor always lay in its exploration of the relationships between its characters--it was rarely "topical" or insulting, which is one reason why time hasn't tarnished its luster (unlike its contemporary, All in the Family). It is this nuance of relationship that makes the comedy of The Mary Tyler Moore Show so wonderfully human and profound. And in this 21st century era of "Reality" show back-stabbers, D-list celebrity confessionals, and ultra- violent crime scene investigations, it is reassuring to spend a few hours in a time when characters could be human and humane, real and relate-able. When you do, you will believe that, indeed, love is all around...again.