The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother ... See full summary »

Director:

Maurice Tourneur

Writers:

Eleanor Gates (play), Frances Marion (scenario)

Stars:

Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Mary Pickford	...	Gwendolyn 'Gwen'
Madlaine Traverse	...	Gwendolyn's Mother
Charles Wellesley	...	Gwendolyn's Father
Gladys Fairbanks	...	Jane
Frank McGlynn Sr.	...	The Plumber
Emile La Croix	...	The Organ Grinder
Marcia Harris	...	Miss Royale
Charles Craig	...	Thomas
Frank Andrews	...	Potter
Herbert Prior	...	The Doctor
George Gernon	...	Johnny Blake
Maxine Elliott Hicks	...	Susie May Squoggs (as Maxine Hicks)

Storyline

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.

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Plot Keywords:

servant | parentage | adult actress playing minor | plumber | greed | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 March 1917 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pieni rikas tyttö-parka

Filming Locations:

Biograph Studios, Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artcraft Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min 78 min (TCM print) 78 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1991.

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Quotes

Title card: Empty hearts. Empty lives. Empty homes. Poor little rich girl.

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Connections

Referenced in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

User Reviews

America's Sweetheart

In addition to typecasting Mary Pickford as playing child characters, this role established her as America's Sweetheart. The 24-year-old Pickford plays an 11-year-old rich girl, who's neglected by her parents and is raised by nasty housekeepers and several personal schoolmarms. The only playmate she's allowed is a bore. Of course, every viewer sympathizes with the character's predicament, and Pickford gets the most out of that. The mud fight and tantrum scenes add some amusement between the more gushy moments and the great dream sequence.

Much of the credit here also needs to go to the screenwriter Frances Marion. Besides being a woman in a male-dominated business, she was one of the first scenarists to have creative control over productions. Like another female screenwriter, Anita Loos, Marion helped introduce the role of intertitles in silent film (as opposed to the tableau style of title cards only to introduce scenes). Both women also sometimes demonstrated their authorship with self-referential winks; Marion's "Armarilly of Clothes-Line Alley" and Loos's "Wild and Woolly" are two examples--where the authors expose their constructions with one intertitle.

Pickford does well to overcome the weirdness of an adult playing the role of a child. Moreover, the setting of a mansion, in addition to large props and tall actors accentuate Pickford's natural smallness, but more needed to be done about her adult figure. Director Maurice Tourneur and the film-making crew add appropriate, non-intrusive style to this sweet photoplay, providing Pickford with the most important vehicle of her career.