Mary Pickford is a favorite of mine from the silent era, which makes her early talkie 'Coquette' so much the sadder. The Academy Awards made no more sense in these early days than they have later on, and Pickford won an Oscar as an appreciation for more than a quarter of a century on the silver screen.
She didn't deserve the Oscar, and the film, with all the failings of an undistinguished early talkie, is hard to watch today, and I am saying that as a lover of pictures of the time. The Southern accents are grating to the ears, the voices shrill, partly, I believe, because of the way they were recorded, and the acting hammy.
Mary Pickford is the Southern Jezebel Norma who flirts with all the boys, but takes a special fancy to hunky working-class Michael (Johnny Mack Brown looks excruciatingly young in this part). Her father disapproves vehemently and one day, with gun in hand, decides to take action. The drama ends in a courtroom, and Norma is torn between her love of her beau and her love for her father.
There is almost nothing good to say about 'Coquette'. Miss Pickford has a moment or two of successful drama (NOT the atrocious ending, though), the lighting overall is wonderful, but apart from that? If you watch this picture and is tempted to blame it all on Miss Pickford, do yourself the favor of looking up some of her best silent pictures, the best of which are bona-fide masterpieces.
She didn't deserve the Oscar, and the film, with all the failings of an undistinguished early talkie, is hard to watch today, and I am saying that as a lover of pictures of the time. The Southern accents are grating to the ears, the voices shrill, partly, I believe, because of the way they were recorded, and the acting hammy.
Mary Pickford is the Southern Jezebel Norma who flirts with all the boys, but takes a special fancy to hunky working-class Michael (Johnny Mack Brown looks excruciatingly young in this part). Her father disapproves vehemently and one day, with gun in hand, decides to take action. The drama ends in a courtroom, and Norma is torn between her love of her beau and her love for her father.
There is almost nothing good to say about 'Coquette'. Miss Pickford has a moment or two of successful drama (NOT the atrocious ending, though), the lighting overall is wonderful, but apart from that? If you watch this picture and is tempted to blame it all on Miss Pickford, do yourself the favor of looking up some of her best silent pictures, the best of which are bona-fide masterpieces.