Educational Media Reviews Online

Milestone Film & Video has released three more Mary Pickford films, adding to the increasing canon around the most influential woman in silent film. In addition to Through the Back Door, the newly released DVDs include Heart o’the Hills, and Suds (all reviewed on this site).

Through the Back Door was originally released on May 17, 1921 and was Pickford’s fourth film for United Artists, the company she founded with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith. The film was co-directed by Alfred E. Green (who was her director Marshall Neilan’s assistant on M’Liss, featured on the Heart o’ the Hills DVD) and Jack Pickford, Mary’s younger brother. Jack was recruited as a director to keep his mind off his wife, Olive Thomas’ death in 1920 but apparently his contribution consisted of suggesting only a gag or two. (See Olive Thomas: Everybody’s Sweetheart reviewed on this site for further details about Thomas’ career and marriage to Jack Pickford.)

The title of the film refers to coming to the United States through Ellis Island, known as the back door to America. Although not primarily a film about immigration, the plot revolves around a young woman in search of her mother at the outbreak of WWI. At the beginning of the film, a Belgian woman, Hortense, (Gertrude Astor) sacrifices motherhood for remarriage and leaves her little daughter Jeanne (played by a toddler) in the care of her nurse while she moves to the United States with her new American husband. Five years later, she finally returns for her child but at this point the nurse, who has raised the little Jeanne as her own, lies and tells Hortense that her daughter has died. A few years later, fearing for Jeanne’s security when the war breaks out, the nurse sends Jeanne to America to find her real mother. Mary Pickford’s performance as a 9 or10-year old girl when she was 29 is astonishing and completely believable. She surrounds herself by tall actors and big furniture as well as a huge dog, and, being tiny herself as well as a master of lighting and makeup, Pickford’s performance and her correct physical proportions are perfectly credible by all possible standards. The most notable section of the film is the parallel editing of Jeanne washing the floor by ingeniously using scrub-brushes as skates while back at the farm the nurse tells her mother she has died. The suspense mounts as she is about to enter her home and find her mother but she must chase after her dog just a second before her mother glances out the window, and finally, one last missed encounter as Jeanne sits by the side of the road with her dog while her mother’s car drives by blowing dust on her in its wake. D.W. Griffith’s Orphans of the Storm premiered later the same year and has a similar suspenseful scene of a missed encounter between the Gish sisters.

Not only does Jeanne enter America through the back door, but she is forced to enter her mother’s home the same way since she looks more like the hired help than a visitor to the estate. However, her guileless fortitude guides her to overcome the obstacles preventing the disclosure of her identity and to rectify the marital strife between her mother and stepfather by averting a blackmailing scheme by Adolphe Menjou in one of his earliest film roles. This well-crafted and highly enjoyable film adds to the reasons why Mary Pickford’s popularity lasted as long as it did. The film’s lyrical musical score by Robert Israel adds to the tone of the film. The film was restored by the Mary Pickford Institute and Timeline Films.

The Cinderella fairy tale was filmed at least a handful of times before Mary Pickford got to portray her in 1914. This bonus film on the DVD was released on December 28, 1914 and directed by James Kirkwood who had directed Mary previously in several films including another fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood in 1911. He had also worked with her as an actor under D.W. Griffith. The film’s running time is 52 minutes. The exteriors were shot in Greenwich, Connecticut and it co-stars Owen Moore as Prince Charming. Pickford was still legally married to Moore at this time but the marriage was over. It should not be forgotten that at this point in her career Pickford was already receiving over 500 fan letters a day while Moore’s star had already begun its steady decline. The titles and intertitles have been beautifully reconstructed in an art nouveau design and the trick photography is well executed and straightforward. The music is by Donald Sosin. There is also stills gallery containing rare material from the period.

Very highly recommended for libraries collecting films related to the history of the moving image and for academic libraries with Film/Media Studies and Women’s Studies programs.