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After her mother mortgages the family's "Sunnybrook Farm", Mary Pickford (as Rebecca Randall) is sent to live with two aunts: Josephine Crowell (as Aunt Miranda) is stern and heartless; she overrides kinder, broken-hearted, Mayme Kelso (as Aunt Jane). Predictably, Ms. Pickford finds things are not so sunny in Riverboro. Moreover, she finds her self at odds with teasing peers, like Violet Wilkey (as Minnie Smellie). Pickford perseveres. And, eventually, she warms folks up, like her older man crush Eugene O'Brien (as Adam "Mr. Aladdin" Ladd), who Pickford hopes to marry when she "grows up"… In a first class production, Pickford has some nice moments; though, her affected "little girl" persona doesn't really succeed in effectively portraying the young heroine of Kate Douglas Wiggins' "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm", as evidenced on film. In sometimes startling contrast, several of the other young performers are noticeably more natural and/or charming. Ms. Wilkey, one of the younger set, regrettably "retired" shortly after her convincing portrayal of "Minnie Smellie". Wilkey, who also played young "Flora" in "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), was one of many marvelous young players Pickford employed, to shine by her side. Happily, kids like Wesley Barry and Milton Berle did not retire after appearing herein. ******* Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) Marshall Neilan ~ Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Violet Wilkey
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