For her sound film debut, Mary Pickford chose what she figured would have a built in box office appeal besides her own good name, a long running Broadway play. Coquette which was authored by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridger and directed by Abbott for Jed Harris, ran 386 performances in the 1927-1928 season. Pickford took over a role popularized by a young Helen Hayes on Broadway.
Mary Pickford knew that her days of playing adolescents or young teens were gone. Still there's a trace of the juvenile in her performance as a young and flirty southern belle who her father, John St. Polis, should not be out slumming with white trash like Johnny Mack Brown. Mary's family is of the southern country club set.
Mary's got a younger brother played by William Janney and when dad thinks it's him that stayed out late, he's just got a boys will be boys attitude. But when Mary stays out with the forbidden Mr. Brown, that's the proverbial horse of a different color. After that film gets highly melodramatic.
The fabled Douglas Fairbanks/Mary Pickford romance was starting to come apart with both of them cheating on the other. It probably helped that Mary was involved with Johnny Mack Brown at the time of the filming of Coquette. Gave her scenes quite a bit of conviction.
Johnny Mack Brown who was an All American halfback with the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide before Paul Bryant ever took over, chose the silver screen over professional athletics. For this southern story his Alabama accent no doubt helped as it did later when he became a cowboy hero in a ton of B westerns.
Mary does overact a lot here. Then again, all the silent stars who had no real stage training or directors to help them dial it down a bit did the same thing, her husband definitely one of those. Though it wouldn't get a look today, I'm sure Mary's performance in that transition year, probably was one of the best and she no doubt deserved her Best Actress Oscar.
Coquette is a play I'm sure you won't see get revived to often. It never has on Broadway. It's dated and highly melodramatic, still for today's viewers it's a curiosity.
Mary Pickford knew that her days of playing adolescents or young teens were gone. Still there's a trace of the juvenile in her performance as a young and flirty southern belle who her father, John St. Polis, should not be out slumming with white trash like Johnny Mack Brown. Mary's family is of the southern country club set.
Mary's got a younger brother played by William Janney and when dad thinks it's him that stayed out late, he's just got a boys will be boys attitude. But when Mary stays out with the forbidden Mr. Brown, that's the proverbial horse of a different color. After that film gets highly melodramatic.
The fabled Douglas Fairbanks/Mary Pickford romance was starting to come apart with both of them cheating on the other. It probably helped that Mary was involved with Johnny Mack Brown at the time of the filming of Coquette. Gave her scenes quite a bit of conviction.
Johnny Mack Brown who was an All American halfback with the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide before Paul Bryant ever took over, chose the silver screen over professional athletics. For this southern story his Alabama accent no doubt helped as it did later when he became a cowboy hero in a ton of B westerns.
Mary does overact a lot here. Then again, all the silent stars who had no real stage training or directors to help them dial it down a bit did the same thing, her husband definitely one of those. Though it wouldn't get a look today, I'm sure Mary's performance in that transition year, probably was one of the best and she no doubt deserved her Best Actress Oscar.
Coquette is a play I'm sure you won't see get revived to often. It never has on Broadway. It's dated and highly melodramatic, still for today's viewers it's a curiosity.