Pollyanna (1920)

Mary Pickford plays the title role in the first adaptation of Eleanor H. Porter's book which Pickford produced herself through her production company. It's about an optimistic orphan who goes and lives with her wealthy spinster aunt after her father passes away. Everyone remembers the 1960 version with Hayley Mills as Pollyanna and Jane Wyman as the aunt, but this version has much to recommend it, foremost being Pickford's adorable performance as a twelve year old girl. She was twenty-seven at the time! This movie was one of her major hits, and Pollyanna is the type of character Pickford often played in movies: adolescent girls. At barely five feet, it was easy for audiences to accept Pickford as a little girl.

This movie is a lean 57 minutes; not unusual for a feature film in that day and age. The scenario is credited to pioneering female screenwriter Frances Marion, who collaborated with Pickford on several of her key films. Pickford helped Marion become established in the movie industry - for she wielded great power during this period. Hollywood was just becoming established and she, along with Griffith, Chaplin, Fairbanks, contributed a great deal to it's foundation. Eventually, perversely, sadly, shockingly, the business they all gave so much to would, with each in a different way, come to neglect them.

You can watch Pollyanna here via Internet Archive http://archive.org/details/Pollyanna