Sparrows (1926)

Film: Sparrows (1926)

Stars: Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau

Director: William Beaudine

Oscar History: Predated the Oscars

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Shirley Temple: click here to learn more about Ms. Pickford (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

I apologize for anyone playing along (bless you if you are), but we missed last week's Mary Pickford movie, and I honestly don't have a good excuse (I barely remember last weekend, but I know I could've done better so I can't recall why I didn't get this seen).  Anyway, we are back this week, and I'll make a point in the next week to see both of our remaining Mary Pickford films so the woman who inspired the concept of America's Sweetheart gets her due on the blog.  Today we're going to look at the film that is considered by many to be Pickford's best work, and came at a crucial turning point in her career.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie stars Molly (Pickford), the eldest of a group of orphans (Pickford is the only one who is clearly an adult-the rest are actual children) who live in a type of indentured hiding in the back swamps of what I'm assuming is supposed to be Louisiana.  They are given this space by a cruel & greedy farmer named Mr. Grimes (von Seyffertitz) who at one point sells an orphan into slavery (or some version of it) when he is spotted by a neighboring farmer.  Mr. Grimes kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy man Mr. Wayne's (Stewart), and while initially he wants to hold her for ransom, he eventually thinks it might be easier if he just throws the baby into the swamp.  Molly protects her, and during a daring escape, she brings all of the children to safety (during that time, Mr. Grimes and his accomplices drown in the muddy swamp).  After returning Mr. Wayne's daughter, he decides to give all of the children a home in his palatial mansion, them finally having their prayers answered.

The film gets its title from the Bible (specifically Luke 12:7 where it's written "Don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows") as the film oftentimes compares the orphans to the sparrows, trying to be seen by God.  The film is really well-lensed, and the story is super compelling for a Silent Era drama.  The swamps are genuinely terrifying, and cinematographer Hal Mohr (who would win two Oscars during his lifetime) does a great job of highlighting this, lingering on dolls sinking into the mud to show how deep & unforgiving they are.  For a studio film in 1926, the use of German Expressionism is obvious and really warranted.  He also uses trick photography where Pickford and the orphans are seen onscreen with real-life alligators.  Pickford would claim later that this was done with her in the scene, but Mohr has said this is insane (no studio was going to risk America's Sweetheart getting eaten by a reptile), and restored versions of these scenes back him up, though my copy I couldn't tell.

It also has to be said that Pickford is superb in this movie.  This is the last film where she played a child, but she honestly works better as a teen mother figure, which is how she reads in Sparrows, younger than Grimes but clearly more nurturing than the children she's played opposite.  At the time, Pickford was the most powerful woman in Hollywood (and give or take Charlie Chaplin, the most powerful actor period in Tinseltown).  Seven years earlier, she'd founded United Artists, which produced this film and gave more power to the people actually making the movies (like Pickford, Chaplin, DW Griffith, and Douglas Fairbanks) than the studio chiefs.  This was a hugely lucrative time for her, regularly turning out films that made $1 million in box office receipts (huge at the time) like Pollyanna, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Rosita, and today's picture.  Pickford was even one of the producers of this film, unheard of for a woman in 1926.  At 34, Pickford was on top of the world...but The Jazz Singer was about to throw a giant anchor into her career.