User reviews

An introduction explains: "The Devil's share in the world's creation was a certain swampland, a masterpiece of horror; and the Lord, appreciating a good job, let it stand." The Devil's swampland is where Mary Pickford (as Molly) lives, with some orphans and a baby. Ms. Pickford has managed to avoid being thrown in the swamp, over the years, and has assumed the role of "Mother" to the young children. They are kept, as "baby farm" slaves, by wicked Gustav von Seyffertitz (as Mr. Grimes). Mr. von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau (as Mrs. Grimes) and Spec O'Donnell (as son Ambrose) make a frightfully wicked family.

Pickford employs too many of the girlish pouts and lip-twisting grimaces to make this one of her best characterizations; playing "Molly" as a young woman of indeterminate age would have been fine (something Pickford would do in her next film, the extraordinary "My Best Girl"). Otherwise, the Pickford persona works. As might be expected, the production is first class. Harry Oliver's swampy set is magnificent. The direction of William Beaudine and photography of Charles Rosher, Hal Mohr, and Karl Struss likewise superb. The too long conclusion is noticeably anti-climatic.

The special effects and editing are still convincing viewers that Pickford and the children were in some kind of danger during the "alligator-infested swamp escape" sequence. In Booten Herndon's "Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks" (1977) Mr. Mohr explains, "There wasn't an alligator within ten miles of Miss Pickford. Do people think we were crazy? I shot that scene myself… It was hard work for all of us, but the only thing those alligators came close to biting was a chunk of horsemeat." Fewer people questioned Pickford's meeting with Jesus Christ, in an earlier scene.

******** Sparrows (5/14/26) William Beaudine ~ Mary Pickford, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau, Spec O'Donnell

We take home video and DVDs for granted now, but for film buffs who grew up prior to the video era it wasn't easy to track down silent movies. They were seldom aired on TV, and when they were shown, unfortunately, they were sometimes treated as laughable relics with "funny" interpolations. Thankfully, vendors such as Blackhawk offered good prints of many vintage titles in 8mm and 16mm, and museums in some cities would schedule occasional screenings. Consequently, as a kid I was able to catch memorable performances by Lon Chaney, Valentino, William S. Hart, and most of the great comedians. Mary Pickford, however, remained elusive. Aside from a few early Biograph dramas most of her movies were locked away in vaults, and shown infrequently. Awareness of her phenomenal fame lingered, but the movies that inspired that fame were difficult to see. I had only a vague sense of Mary's screen persona, and imagined she must have been an earlier incarnation of Shirley Temple, a goody two-shoes with blonde ringlets whose vehicles were mostly tear-jerkers. Eventually, of course, the situation changed, restoration efforts commenced, and Mary's films began to emerge from hibernation. In the 1980s Sparrows became one of the first Pickford classics to become available on good quality VHS, and once I saw it I understood Mary's appeal. Viewing it again recently on the big screen, at a Pickford festival at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens NY, only confirmed my first impression that this is one of the most beautifully produced silent dramas ever made. It isn't flawless, and it isn't for all tastes, but it's powerful, moving and unforgettable, and the leading lady gives one of her definitive performances.

Sparrows is essentially a thriller, at times almost a horror story. Our setting is a bleak "baby farm" in a swampy bayou that looks like a landscape by Hieronymus Bosch. Mary plays an adolescent known as Mama Molly who acts as a protective maternal figure to a gang of scruffy, starving kids. These are children who have been sent away by families too poor to care for them, well-intentioned folk who naively believe their children will be raised properly. The farm is run by the most evil family you'll find in the movies: old Mr. Grimes, his wife, and her son, played by character actors Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau, and Spec O'Donnell. Both Mineau and O'Donnell had backgrounds in comedy, but their performances here are deadly earnest and without a trace of humor. Good as they are, however, they're topped by Von Seyffertitz in what he must have recognized as the role of a lifetime. Grimes is a Dickensian monster: a greedy, spindly, limping man with dead eyes and no conscience. His prison-like farm is surrounded by quicksand and alligator infested swampland. The children in his keeping are treated as his property, and he'd sell any one of them down the river for a few coins. At the screening I attended a child in the audience responded to Grimes' evil-doing by loudly announcing: "He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!" It got a big laugh, but the kid only said aloud what we were all thinking.

Mama Molly occupies the story's moral center, but she's no goody two-shoes. She's been toughened by adversity, and she's fiercely protective of the youngsters in her charge. When Grimes' horrible step-son bullies them she is quick to stand up to him. And when Grimes threatens to punish the children by withholding their dinner, all because of a minor infraction on Molly's part, she volunteers to go without food for two days rather than see the children suffer. She is also the primary caregiver for a sickly baby who, despite her best efforts, dies one night in the loft of the old barn. In a scene some viewers may find a bit sticky, an image of Jesus appears at the moment of the baby's death and carries him away to the after-life. Sentimental? Sure, but it's performed with absolute conviction, and the close-up of Mary that concludes this scene is deeply affecting. (At the recent museum screening I attended we were shown several rejected takes of an earlier version of this scene in which the baby's spirit is carried away to the heavens by a phosphorescent angel. The out-takes were fascinating, but I feel the scene works better as it stands.)

Much of the credit for this film rightfully belongs to the scenic designer, Harry Oliver, and to the crack team of cinematographers, Charles Rosher, Hal Mohr, and Karl Struss. All of these artists have numerous impressive credits to their names, but their collaboration in this case produced something extraordinary, a movie that is exceptionally beautiful in design as well as beautifully photographed and edited. It's said that the production was influenced by the work of such German auteurs as Murnau and Lang, and indeed Sparrows has a distinctly "Germanic" atmosphere, but with greater emphasis on audience empathy; that is, the filmmakers really want you to feel for these kids. Our emotions peak during the climactic escape, when Molly leads the children through the swamp to freedom. Pursued by Grimes' dogs they dash across rocks, narrowly missing the quicksand, then climb trees and crawl over branches hovering just above alligators that swarm and snap. It's an amazingly suspenseful sequence.

Unfortunately, this is not the film's finale. The escape is followed by a gratuitous action sequence involving kidnappers attempting to flee the police by boat, and when this concludes we still have a couple more scenes meant to tie up the plot's loose strands. If the last twenty minutes or so had been reduced to a brisk seven or eight, the movie would have been just about perfect. Nothing can top the escape through the swamp, and it's too bad they made the attempt. Even so, in my opinion Sparrows stands as one of the most memorable works of the silent cinema, and Mary Pickford's crowning achievement.

United Artists in the mid-1920's stood outside the motion picture industry's block booking system. It owned no theaters and did not have enough films to offer them in blocks. This meant each of the UA producers (Griffith, Fairbanks, Chaplin, and Pickford) had to finance each film individually; not an easy thing with the rising costs of producing long features. While Griffith was digging himself into a big hole (which would ultimately cost him his production company) making epic films and trying to top his early successes, Pickford prudently operated on a smaller scale. The irony being that she produced the type of folksy stuff that Griffith had once done so well and so profitably.

"Sparrows" was her last appearance as a teenager; her choice because even in her thirties she would have been physically believable in these roles for a couple more years. Most often described as "Dickensian" because of its gloomy feel and slightly off-kilter production design, "Sparrows" is the original "Series of Unfortunate Events". It is regarded as the least dated of her pictures (maybe of all silents), fitting because it does not seem at all dated. Even the humor seems contemporary with little Molly misquoting bible verses with stuff like: "Let not thy right cheek know what thy left cheek is getting".

"Sparrows" is also more perennially appealing than any silent film. In fact you have to go all the way until 1933's "It Happened One Night" to actually supplant it. But it is a serious subject as baby farms are a historical fact and wealthy parents had reasons to fear kidnapping. The kidnapping in "Sparrows" has an eerie similarity to that of the Lindbergh baby, which would not take place until seven years "after" the film.

The "look" of the film reflects the German expressionist style and should delight Lemony Snicket fans and anyone who gets off on creepy-strange beauty. Set designer Harry Oliver "aged the tree stumps with blowtorches, and the entire picture has that netherworld quality of a slightly stylized environment that could only be created in a movie studio". Watch for the early scene where the baby farm operator crushes the little doll and drops it into the quicksand where it slowly disappears.

You also see a lot of Pickford's technique in Hal Roach's "Little Rascals". Check out the sequence when Little Splutters is leaving and his imprisoned friends are waving goodbye from inside the barn, by passing their hands through the slats. In fact Spec O'Donnell, who plays nasty stepson Ambrose, would later be a Roach regular. He is responsible for the film's first big laugh when he beans Molly with a turnip while she is trying to get the baby to stop crying. It is totally unexpected and even the baby finds it funny.

Also of note is the dream sequence where Jesus comes to take the baby to heaven. Modern special effects could not improve on what they got using a simple matte exposure process. A similar technique worked so well with the swamp scenes that a legend grew up that Pickford and the children were actually at risk from the live alligators used in the scenes. Probably no silent managed a more genuinely suspenseful sequence than when they are crossing a rotting tree limb which is slowly cracking and dipping toward the water full of hungry alligators.

Gustav von Seyffertitz does great as the evil Mr. Grimes (an early Snidley Whiplash) and is one of the best bad guys to come out of the silent era.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Excellent popcorn movie that serves as a perfect introduction to silent cinema or to Mary Pickford, who at age 34, and still looking youthful, gives a top-notch performance in her final juvenile role. Pickford stars as Molly, ingenious caregiver to a band of orphans held captive on the bayou farm of evil Mr. Grimes - played with steely menace by Von Seyffertitz. The film's title is a reference to Matthew 6:26, a Bible verse Molly teaches her children when they complain about their situation. The film's religious symbolism goes even further, when one of Molly's youngest dies and Christ appears to carry the child home. Grimes strikes a deal with kidnappers to keep the infant daughter of a wealthy young widower until the ransom money can be collected. He assigns the baby to Molly after the death of her "sparrow". When one of the orphans escapes, Grimes plots to dispose of the whole group in the alligator-infested bayou. When Molly learns of Grimes' plan, she plots a daring escape with her band.

An all around excellent film, and a strong influence on many kids adventure films such as vastly inferior big-budget blockbusters like Goonies or Spy Kids.

According to the film history book on United Artists, Sparrows did not quite as well as expected. I suspect the reason is because Mary Pickford at 33 was getting a little long in the tooth to be believable as an orphan waif. Soon enough her golden curls were shorn and she would finally be taking grown up roles at the end of the silent era.

Sparrows takes a lot from Uncle Tom's Cabin without the racial component. Mary is the oldest of several orphan kids who work just like slaves on the farm of the Simon Legree character Gustav Von Syefertitz who played many villainous roles in silents and his wife Charlotte Mineau who aids and abets her husband's villainy.

Von Seyfertitz is up for all kinds of villainy so when some kidnappers want to stash a baby, rich Roy Stewart's baby he's willing for a cut of the ransom. Later when Stewart agrees to pay the kidnappers come back, but by that time Mary is leading her charges through the swamp to escape as she and the kids have had enough.

Most of the film is a white version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, but the ending is out of David Copperfield.

Sparrows is a great example of the art of Mary Pickford and what her appeal was to the movie-going public. She personified goodness and innocence on the screen despite three marriages. Instead of an icy Ohio River, Mary gets to take her brood through the Louisiana swamps with the ever present danger of alligators. I'm sure for 1926 audiences it must have been quite thrilling.

It will still thrill audiences of a new century.

SPARROWS (United Artists, 1926), directed by William Beaudine, is a prime example of good vs. evil with a timeless story centering upon abducted children, mostly orphans, being held in bondage on an isolated location surrounded by treacherous swamps and quicksand where they are put through slave labor with little nutrition, only a potato for each, as well as living in constant fear from a "family man" named Mr. Grimes, who threatens to throw them into the swamp if they don't behave. Headlining the cast of not-so-well known actors is Mary Pickford, one of the top names of the silent screen, whose performance in SPARROWS has been singled out as the finest and most revived of her long list of film credits. Better known as "America's Sweetheart," Pickford, as one of the "sparrows" (title inspired by the Biblical quotation concerning the Lord's attention even to the most humble sparrow) is convincing as the eldest and mother figure to the enslaved children, in spite of being a woman in her thirties, yet, this being her farewell performance as the little girl with pig tails, it's the sort of role moviegoers and film historians remember her best.

The opening inter-titles gives much indication as to what's to be seen: "The devil's share in the world's creation was a certain southern swampland - a masterpiece of horror and the Lord appreciating a good job, let it stand," followed by an overview of the location from where the story is set, "Then the devil went himself one better - and had Mr. Grimes live in the swamp." Grimes (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) is then introduced as the title cards read, going one better, seen limping through the swamp land with mosquitoes flying around his head, acquiring a doll to be given to a little girl on his farm, then crushing the doll's head and throwing it into the quicksand as he watches it slowly sinking. Next introduction is Mollie (Mary Pickford) along with the other little orphans flying her kite with a message for help attached. The kite flies away in the wind only to be caught on a tree branch. There goes her plea for help! The "sparrows" must hide in the barn whenever the bell rings so that they won't be visible to visitors buying hogs from Mr. Grimes. As the story progresses, Grimes acquires a two-year-old girl (Mary Louise Miller) from a couple of abductors, unaware that she is the daughter of millionaire David Wayne (Roy Stewart). When Grimes learns of the child's identity in the newspapers, and that police are on his trail, he attempts to dispose of the evidence by throwing her into the swamp, but Mollie prevents this, first by using a pitchfork as a weapon against Grimes, and later making a daring escape taking the baby and the other "sparrows" with her, risking their lives through the swamps, quicksand and very hungry crocodiles. With this being the highlight, it is followed by a second climatic scene that fails to recapture the initial thrill.

With the exception of Pickford and the child actors, much of the supporting players are very much like the Charles Dickens novels, unsympathetic types. Grimes is evil beyond belief; his wife (played by Charlotte Mineau) is an ignorant country woman with some common sense, but not quite as pleasant, while their son, Ambrose (Spec O'Donnell) is quite brutal, especially when he pleasures himself by bullying the sparrows, mainly the defenseless ones, ranging from a stuttering youngster to a lame boy bearing crutches.

Throughout the years, SPARROWS has been available in alternate versions, not in terms of length or missing scenes, but in music accompaniment. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City had a tribute to Mary Pickford in June 1979, the very year of her death, SPARROWS was presented to an attentive audience with a slow pacing piano score, the same print shown in the 1982-83 public television's weekly series of "Sprockets." Distributed on video cassette through various distributors, ranging from those with an organ, piano or no scoring at all. Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 30, 1999) occasionally presents it on "Silent Sunday Nights" equipped with piano scoring by William Perry from the Paul Killian collection, having the 1970s "Silent Years" feel to it.

As good as the story goes in regards to sentiment, suspense and limited doses of comedy, SPARROWS leaves some questions unanswered, one in particular regarding the father of Doris Wayne. With the only other female residing in his mansion being a private nurse, whatever became of the mother? Is he divorced or widowed? As for Pickford's character, she comes across as self-confident, religious and never losing her faith, praying to the Good Lord in hope that someday she and the nine other "sparrows" will obtain their long awaited freedom. One poignant scene occurs with Molly holding a dead baby in her arms as she envisions Jesus Christ approaching her and taking the infant with Him to Heaven.

Of the handful of screen villains at that time, such as Ernest Torrence or Tully Marshall, Von Seyffertitz comes across as very sinister, coming close to the physical resemblance to Max Schreck in the German made NOSFERATU (1922). In spite of some weaknesses in the screenplay, it's almost a perfect film. Only debit are dozes of comedy seemingly unfitting with atmospheric setting. It's also quite surprising that a movie with a touch of D.W. Griffith to be directed by William Beaudine, better known more for his poverty-row features in later years.

With a majority of silent movies remade during the sound era, it's amazing that as popular as SPARROWS has become, that it wasn't redone. A remake with Anne Shirley as Mollie and Edward Ellis or Arthur Hohl as Grimes might have worked as good casting. However, as remakes go, very few have ever recaptured the success of the original. (***)

A setup as grim as what you'd see in a Tod Browning film, and maybe if one of those kids had plopped down into the mouth of a gator during their escape, you might think it was one. As frightening as it seems, "baby farms" were real places in the late 19th/early 20th century and all over the world (Google it and be horrified), so the kids working mercilessly, sold, or killed out in the swamp in the film (the latter referenced only) are not exaggerations. But no, this is Mary Pickford, America's Sweetheart after all, so we kind of suspect everything is going to be all right.

I loved the highly atmospheric setting, the performance from the evil old man (Gustav von Seyffertitz), and the escape sequence that had Pickford borrowing a page out of her husband Douglas Fairbanks book by swinging across muddy quicksand, child in her arms. The little baby's curly hair was pretty wild too, making me wonder who was cuter, the baby or Pickford. At age 34 she was still playing a young girl, and quite well too, in addition to producing the film, which still fascinates me.

I disliked all the heavy-handed religious references, of which there were many, trying to explain how God could allow such a place to exist, that it was all part of a plan we can't fathom, and how he tends to each and every sparrow, and eventually these children's prayers as well. The film also drags on a little long after all the action has concluded, for about 15 minutes. Overall, pretty entertaining though.

Although this is Mary Pickford's film, it also presents Von Seyffertitz with the best role of his career. Needing little in the way of make-up, the gaunt actor adds to his frighteningly sinister appearance by flourishing his claw-like hands and limping in awkward yet forceful strides. Child actor, Spec O'Donnell, who usually played comic roles, is also most effective. But it is, of course, Mary herself who focuses most of our attention, not only in the hair-raising scenes in which she is pursued by Grimes but in the many heartrending sequences in which she protects her "sparrows".

William Beaudine later became Hollywood's number one hack, but in silent days—indeed until around the mid-1930s—he was a very polished director who could not only draw great performances from his players but add immeasurably to a film's atmosphere and visual effect. Here, his compositions are indelibly terrifying.

The last film in which Mary Pickford was to play a child is a strong horror-thriller which sees her and eight fellow orphans braving Everglade swamps and alligators to escape cruel Gustaf von Seyffertitz's remote baby farm. It was a troubled production, but although he seems to take forever to bring its concluding scenes to an end, director William Beaudine wrings some real suspense out of a unique and intriguing scenario, and Pickford's performance is particularly strong.

I'm sorry, but, I just don't see it.

This is now the 3rd "Mary Pickford" silent film that I've recently watched and I find that I'm not at all impressed with this woman as an actress.

Don't get me wrong, this woman did have a semblance of some genuine charm, but, now, 90 years later, whatever it was that made her so popular in those days of yesteryear has been significantly diminished over time.

In 1926's "Sparrows", Mary Pickford (now 34) played (for the last time) a young girl (a role that she had been constantly playing for close to 20 years). In this particular story Mary plays Molly, the heroine to 7 orphaned children.

The setting for Sparrows takes place in the thick of the Louisiana swamplands where the wicked (and physically bent) Mr. Grimes (along with his homely, do-nothing wife) run a "baby" farm of lost, displaced and abducted children who are treated very badly and worked like dogs in order to tend Grimes' crops and maintain his property.

More than anything else Sparrows was nothing but a deceitful, little "god-works-in-mysterious-ways" Bible story. Molly repeatedly made references to this religious book and reassured the little ones that "The Lord" would, indeed, see them all safely through these hard times (even though his tactics weren't always clear to even the most simple-minded fool imaginable).

Besides the irritating emphasis that was placed on Molly's religious beliefs, I also found that the basic essence of Sparrows' story to be very-very disturbing.

This was a cruel-minded, sinister, and depressing story. It hinted at the possibilities that these abducted children were very likely being sexually abused by not only Mr. Grimes, but, by the men whom Grimes (in order to make a quick buck) sold them over to.

Even though I'm trying very hard to view this picture strictly from a nostalgic point of view, I find that it just doesn't wash quite that easily and, with that, I can only give it a low, 4-star rating.

From my point of view, I think that it was a real shame that Mary Pickford was forever type-cast into these "Molly" roles. To me, she looked mighty foolish and unconvincing at 34 trying to pass herself off as a sweet and innocent 14-year-old - But, hey, back then, the audiences loved her to pieces that way.

Before sound and talkies became the norm in the film industry, we had to settle with black and white cinematography and an original score to understand the story. Mary Pickford was a brilliant actress and one of the first true movie stars who made the transformation from the silent films to the talkies. This film should be considered one of the true classic silent films of all time. Mary Pickford was one of Hollywood's earliest stars and it was a time when the film industry appeared innocent and so new. Everything surprised audiences with delight and films were scene over and over until they knew it by heart. It's a shame that today's films forget the brilliance of simplicity and work on shocking us or losing the role of actors and actresses. Great films don't have to be spectacular spectacles. They could tell simple stories with great acting and writing and you have a great film.

A Gothic Mary Pickford vehicle that could fairly be derided as being over-the-top, full of clichés, corny, melodramatic as hell, and predictable.

And yet Pickford is so charming, and some of the visual story telling so good, that it's far more watchable than it seems to have any right to be.

Pickford is a teenager playing mother to a group of orphans held captive in a southern farm in the middle of the swamps by an evil land owner and his wife who make the worst characters in Dickens look like saints. There are some real moments of tension, and you can see how much it laid the groundwork for the great "Night of the Hunter" years later. And the twist ending is a nice surprise.

Mary Pickford once again shines in this late silent cinematic gem. The somber photography and storyline suggests a strong influence of the then German expressionist movement. A fine production nicely directed by William Beaudine. Still youthful looking, this is I believe Pickfords' last juvenile role and she plays it with that same girlish vitality. One of the finer films of the silent era.

In the swamps of the old south, the Grimes family operates a baby farm where abandoned babies are raised to perform menial tasks on their farm and sometimes get sold. Molly (Mary Pickford) is the oldest of the kids and she tries to protect them as best she can. They can only pray to be rescue from their state. During a stormy night, Grime's cohorts had kidnapped a wealthy family's baby.

This is quite a Dickensian tale. Apparently, this was a thing but I don't know how realistic. Pickford was in her mid-30's by this time and I'm assuming that she's playing a teen. She plays younger fairly well but there is a limit. It boils down to realism. I don't completely buy the story and Pickford's age do stand out. I know she's the big producer of this film, but maybe she should give this role to one of the girls. I would create a guardian angel role for Pickford.

A superstar of her era, Mary Pickford was a great actress and a great comic. She won an Oscar for her talkie debut in Coquette, but Pickford is better remembered for a string of silent films in the teens and 20s that showed off her amazing abilities and personality. And Sparrows is one of the best. Pickford plays a young girl trapped on a "baby farm" in the middle of a swamp somewhere in the Deep South. The role allows her to be funny, poignant, and plucky---all the things audiences wanted to see in a Pickford picture. Pickford is also a great physical comic in the tradition of Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton. Sparrows is funny but also builds dramatic tension as Mary leads the band of orphans thru the swamp to escape the evil owner. The wonderful piano score by William Perry is also an asset. Good film; great star.

Mary Pickford is Molly, the oldest of around 10 children held captive by evil Mr Grimes (Gustav von Seyffertitz) in a place in the middle of an alligator-infested swamp somewhere in the American South. Grimes forces the children to work for him, and Molly cares for them as well as she can. Eventually things come to a head and she leads an exciting escape through the swamp. This is a well-made film that has been beautifully photographed and that is mostly well-directed. There are very few parts of the plot that seem to sag a little (maybe the last few scenes do), but all in all the picture generates a lot of suspense. Pickford, who was approaching her mid-30s when the film was made, convinces as a child of about eleven or twelve (definitely still pre-adolescent) with a sense of responsibility shaped by her experiences at Grimes' place. To keep the children in line she is inventing quotations from scripture that are so good they could be authentic if they were not so funny. For that, I am willing to forgive director William Beaudine the kitschy Jesus-scene he evidently felt he had to include. For my taste, though, von Seyffertitz is the star of 'Sparrows'. I believe he played many comical roles, but here he manages to embody evil in a way I have seen few other actors do. All in all this is an exciting film, well worth watching.

Mary Pickford plays her usual role as a feisty teenager helping others. The film gives meaning to the wonderful line in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard uttered by Gloria Swanson "We had faces then". Not only Mary but all of the cast including the children are very expressive. I don't know how much of the movie when it was originally released was intended as comedy rather than meledrama, but I found it helarious througout. Modern moviemakers with their emphasis on violence, special effects and profanity could learn a lot from these silent movies.

I've blown my nose through many a verifiable 'tear-jerker' but this was my first 'silent' sniffling:

"Sparrows" (1926) was directed by William Beaudine. Winifred Dunn wrote the story.

It was a drama about the very evil Mr. Grimes. He stole and kept poor orphans as "slave labor" on his farm. It's location was deep in a swamp in a southern U.S. state (one with alligators). They were used as his work force to keep the farm work done. Young Molly was the oldest and lovingly cared for the children.

One day Grimes and his crooked cronies kidnapped the small daughter of a wealthy man. (The word 'wealthy' tells you why.) Molly added little Doris to her heart and care. Then she learned that the police were closing in on finding the baby. Grimes had ordered her thrown into the swamp. The children grouped around Molly to save the little one. There was a daring rescue and escape. Molly took all the children with her through the swamp. (Take about edge of the seat and a box of tissues.) Did they make it out? Was there a happily-ever-after ending? I hope you'll get to find out. (I've seen this on Turner Classic Movies twice. It's wee worth your time.)

Cast:

Mary Pickford played Molly; Roy Stewart played Dennis Wayne ;Mary Louise Miller was Doris Wayne (the baby); Gustave von Seyffertitz was Mr. Grimes.

This was Mary Pickford's last film in which she played a young girl. Her fans had trouble letting her grow into adult parts. Since she was already involved in United Artists (founded with Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, and Charles Chaplin) she turned to producing. Although she did try directing once: "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall" (1924)

"Make them laugh, make them cry, and back to laughter. What do people want to go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise... I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that." A Quote from Mary Pickford.

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." Will Rogers

This is an odd little film that looks a lot like a re-telling of the first half of another Mary Pickford film, DADDY LONG LEGS combined with the films PAPILLON and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER!! In other words, Mary once again is a poor little orphan who has a heart of gold AND she lives in a gator-infested swamp and ultimately makes her escape with the other orphans from an evil menace.

The film begins at a hellhole in the middle of a swamp. They don't say where it is but it looks a lot like Louisiana or northern Florida. An evil man and woman live there with their evil son and on their farm they have about ten kids (the number changes from time to time) who they work as slaves. Some were entrusted to their care by others--the man and wife claiming they ran a foster home for poor kids. And some others were actually stolen from their parents and brought there! On the farm, the kids are starved, beaten and some even die due to the horrid conditions--during which time, the oldest (Mary Pickford) acts like the mother to the brood and keeps their spirits high. Eventually, though, when Mary learns that the evil man is planning on tossing one of the kids into quicksand to get rid of her, she plans a daring escape with the kids. In the process, they must survive many obstacles to reach safety.

The film is beautifully filmed for a movie from 1926 and the production values are high throughout. However, despite being well-made and interesting, the film is also pretty heavy-handed at times--especially with some of the religious imagery. Back in the twenties, this probably played a lot better than it does now. Today it seems a tad dated because of this. But, considering how entertaining the film STILL is and how well it stacks up against other movies of the day, it does deserve an eight. Not my favorite Pickford film (these would be SUDS, MY BEST GIRL and DADDY LONG LEGS), but well worth seeing.