Little Annie Rooney

Annie Rooney (Mary Pickford) is the daughter of a police officer (Walter James) in downtown New York, an area inhabited by immigrants from all over the world who generally get along with each other very well, but where there is also quite a bit of crime. Annie's age is indeterminate: She is not too old to fight with the other kids on the block, but old enough to have a crush on the older brother of her arch rival, the leader of the Kid Kelly gang. Pickford portrayed this late childhood-early adolescent age in many of her films, from 'The Poor Little Rich Girl' (1917) over 'The Hoodlum' (1919) to 'Sparrows' (1926), and audiences loved her for it. In fact she was so successful in this kind of role that some parts of 'Little Annie Rooney' could have been lifted from 'The Hoodlum', which has a very similar setting. Still, I liked each of the other films I mentioned above better than 'Litte Annie'. The reason is the way director William Beaudine approached his material. The film starts off with an inordinately long and repetitive fight between two gangs of children who seem to throw bricks and whatnot at each other's heads (without injuries). Once this fight is over, the story gets going, but by this time you feel as if you had already watched half of the film. Similar lengthy passages abound (for example, Annie trying to mount a horse). 'Little Annie Rooney' simply is not particularly suspenseful. On the other hand, I liked how the film showed diverse groups of immigrants living together: Greeks, Irish, Blacks, Jews, Chinese - all that is presented without the slightest hint of racism. Given that a couple of years before the US had for the first time limited immigration, I guess this must be considered a statement. But that's not enough to make 'Little Annie' a good film. It is ok and watchable, but far from outstanding.