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| Images courtesy of the Mary Pickford Company |
Canadian film actress, screenwriter and
studio founder Gladys Marie Smith, otherwise known in the film industry as Mary
Pickford, was one of the US film industry’s greatest pioneers and titans. Having formed with her husband Douglas
Fairbanks the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios company as well as the legendary United
Artists, “America’s sweetheart” girl “with the curls” almost immediately
cemented herself as the queen of the Classical Hollywood Cinema era. A frequent collaborator of D.W. Griffith in
the early 1900s, the actress eventually worked her way up through the industry,
landing her a feature film contract with Adolph Zukor in 1916 for Paramount
Pictures under their sublabel Artcraft.
With the foundation of the Mary
Pickford Company and in conjunction with the Library of Congress, an extensive
restoration was undertaken for her 1918 film Stella Maris directed by
Marshall Neilan. Based on William John
Locke’s 1913 novel of the same name, the film nearly fell into the usual fates
of silent film oblivion due to wear and tear and time until the Mary Pickford
Foundation and Paramount Film Archive sought to gather together all the
surviving elements to reconstruct the most complete version of the film
available. Though the COVID-19 pandemic
forced the archives to close up for two years, they still managed to work out a
deal where the elements could be scanned in 4K and further restored into a
watchable print. Though the elements themselves
were incomplete, this is as close to the original release version as it was
seen by hand-cranked projection speed 19fps in 1918.
On the cusp of WWI with scenes of
soldiers marching past the estate, Stella Maris (Mary Pickford) is born
paralyzed and immobile while her overprotective wealthy legal guardians do
their best to shield her from the ills of the world. Bedbound, she is unaware of the war breaking
out around her or that people are impoverished.
Meanwhile established journalist and family friend John Risca (Conway
Tearle) has been unhappily married to alcoholic Louise (Marcia Manon) for
several years but gets some respite through visiting Stella Maris. After hiring an uneducated orphaned servant
named Unity Blake (Mary Pickford again) who loses her groceries while shopping
to some juvenile delinquents, Louise savagely beats the orphan and gets
arrested and sentenced to three years in prison while John Risca and the Maris
family take the battered youth under their wing to care for her, eventually
pitting Unity Blake and Stella Maris (two Mary Pickfords) onscreen together
through a wild technical visual effects feat.
A silent melodrama aided by a newly
rendered score by the Graves Brothers and shot beautifully in 1.37:1 by
longtime Cecile B. DeMille collaborator Walter Stradling, the sepia tone tinted
tale of two damaged frail souls who find unlikely solace in one another with a
triangular love drama going on in the background is a sweet natured story with
a sense of hope shining through all the darkness. A real showcase for the incredible acting
talents of Mary Pickford who despite only having reliance on intertitles for dialogue
manages to create two very different characters who couldn’t look more
dissimilar, Stella Maris also functions as a time capsule capturing a
war breaking out in seemingly real time.
Despite some initial censorship that has since been restored, the film
that significantly boosted the already strong commercial and critical appeal of
Mary Pickford with an extraordinary performance that went on to become a huge
commercial success.
The Mary Pickford Company restored
release also comes on bluray courtesy of MVD Visual and VCI Entertainment a
bonus biograph short film from Mary Pickford’s 1900 days as well as detailed
liner notes breaking down the restoration as well as the creation of the new
score. A splendid addition to any cinematic
historian’s library going back to the heart of old foundational Americana in a
beautifully detailed release, Stella Maris despite the COVID-19 delays
was worth the wait and the end results look glorious. Mary Pickford’s contribution to cinema as one
of the first true female pioneers of film remains as vital now as it was then
and I look forward to the next impending restoration project from the Mary
Pickford Company!
--Andrew Kotwicki
