Pollyanna (1920)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Paul Powell

Writers:

Eleanor H. Porter (novel)
Catherine Chisholm Cushing (play)

Release Date:

18 January 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy | Drama

Plot:

When Pollyanna is orphaned, she is sent to live with her crotchety Aunt Polly. Pollyanna discovers that...

Plot Keywords:

Aunt | New England | Doctor | Unrequited Love | Cure

Cast

Mary Pickford	...	Pollyanna Whittier
Wharton James	...	Reverend John Whittier
Katherine Griffith	...	Aunt Polly Harrington
Helen Jerome Eddy	...	Nancy Thing, Polly's Maid
George Berrell	...	Old Tom, Polly's Handyman
Howard Ralston	...	Jimmy Bean
William Courtleigh	...	John Pendleton
Herbert Prior	...	Dr. Tom Chilton

Runtime:

58 min (18 fps)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Mary Pickford Company

Trivia:

Catherine Chisholm Cushing's play opened in New York on 18 September 1916.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chicago (2002)

Soundtrack:

Rock-a-Bye Baby

I'm So Glad

Short and Sweet. Way shorter and sweeter than any of the remakes - UK ITV did it again a couple of years ago at nearly 2 hours long with only 1 saccharine tab. It's far too short in fact, as Aunt Polly doesn't really get enough time for her character to develop properly in reaction to events caused by Pollyanna. Otoh I think Disney's was a bit too long and flat, but hey I'm hardly ever satisfied!

Pollyanna always tries to find ways of being Glad, no matter what happens. And why not, imho it's far better to be happy in this short life - if it isn't keep it to yourself! By now Mary Pickford was 27 playing 12 and was still getting away with it on screen. I know she was later properly praised for saving a lot of her classic pictures from being lost, but she really can't be thanked enough for it not only from the entertainment point of view but the historical one as well. This version of Pollyanna reflects back to us a world long dead, where you can watch and wonder what the actors and actresses would have thought of the cynical deadbeat filth that Hollywood churns out today, and whether or not they in their turn yearned too for the even simpler world of Pollyanna.

Maybe, and perhaps, this film simple and uncluttered as it is will still be available in the distant future and watched by people when every film made now is long forgotten, unknown and unwatched.