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Daddy Long LegsRating:
Release Date: 23 November, 1999 Retail Price: $29.99 OUR Price: $26.99 You SAVE: $3.00! Cast: |
Daddy Long Legs Reviews
Daddy Long Legs
A baby is found in a trashcan, wrapped in newspapers, and grows up to be Mary Pickford.
The baby, as was probably common for all post-Oliver Twist melodramas, is haphazardly named by the stern mistress of the orphanage after riffling through a phone books and surveying a clump of headstones.
The silent DADDY-LONG-LEGS is two movies delicately joined. The first follows the fortunes of young Jerusha `Judy' Abbott (Pickford) in the orphanage. From the second half comes the title of the film. A wealthy benefactor wishes to send Pickford to college, and, importantly, maintain his anonymity. The only glimpse she catches of him is his tall shadow. Hence Daddy-Long-Legs.
There's a welcome dose of comedy in the first half. Melodramas set in orphanages, especially silent ones, can be pretty rough going. Fortunately this one only kills one child and burns one thieving hand. It could be worse. The movie offsets the heavy stuff with an amusing scene with an inebriated dog and a cute look at the headquarters of Dan Cupid, un-LTD, replete with a gaggle of winged and diaper-clad toddlers intent on throwing or two at pretty Miss Pickford. The second half is a tale of love finding the delicate heroine with a terrible secret.
I enjoyed DADDY-LONG-LEGS quite a bit. Whatever made Mary Pickford "America's Sweetheart" almost a hundred years ago still works today. Watching the movie took a little bit of adjustment, though. The orphanage melodrama was about as thick as Queen Victoria's girdle, and title cards saying "Why did she raise her hair and lengthen her skirts?" confused a bit more than they enlightened. The social stigma associated with being an orphan seems dated, as well.
The other film on this disk also features Mary Pickford. WHAT THE DAISY SAID was directed by D.W. Griffith in 1910 and is a very short take on two sisters (Pickford and Gertrude Robinson) being seduced by a gigolo of a palm-reading Gypsy. The moral seems to be to trust flowers more than men who wrap their heads in handkerchiefs.
A charming movie
This turns out to be a very charming movie with a splendid performance by Mary Pickford which proves why she was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. The film alternates between comedy and drama working well in the latter category but excelling in the first. Beautifully photographed and directed it's a highly entertaining movie which makes you forget that you are watching a silent film because you get involved in the story right away. Also the acting is very understated and natural so that you really believe in the characters. Unlike many early movies where you have to watch them from a historical perspective to enjoy them this should work for a modern audience just as well.
The transfer to DVD is excellent in my opinion. It contains a chamber score by Maria Newman which is superior to most scores you will hear on videos for silent films even though it is not in the same league as Carl Davis' scores for the British channel 4 silent movie series (some of which are available on video in the U.S. e.g. The Big Parade).
The DVD also contains a short by D.W. Griffith which is entertaining in its way although it can hardly be considered one of his best works.
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