Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

Rebecca exercising her lack of patience

Directed by Marshall Neilan
Starring Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Helen Jerome Eddy
Produced by Mary Pickford Company

Time for Mary Pickford in a classic children's movie.   Sunnybrook Farm is failing and Rebecca's mother sends her to stay with her two stern aunts.  Rebecca (Mary Pickford) has a series of adventures in the town of Riverboro, selling soap, reciting poetry at her school and putting on a circus.  During each of the episodes in her life, she encounters new people and everyone involves learns something in the process.  Can Rebecca find love and get the better of Minnie Smellie?

If you are a modern film viewer, you have seen this before.  Rebecca is Pollyanna.  She's Annie.  She's Heidi.  She's that girl that through her precociousness one ups her rivals, teaches life lessons to passerbys and melts the heart of the most jaded elders. 

The revelation for me in this film was Mary Pickford.  She is a brilliant actress in this movie, wearing every emotion on her incredibly expressive face.  When she arrives at her aunts' house, she is confused and nervous, then deeply saddened, then finding the humor in her situation, all in the span of moments.  There's never a title card.  It's simply there in her cries, her arched eyebrows, her smile.

Rebecca's approach to life earns her the eye and affections of Adam Ladd (Eugene O'Brien) in a romance that proves to be... creepy.  Even though Pickford is 25, she plays a 17-year-old and looks the part.  O'Brien is clearly much older and it's unsettling to watch the two pine for each other throughout the film.It requires a three year leap forward at the end of the film to bring this plot thread to a resolution.


Overall, the film itself is well shot. Marshall Neilan uses close-ups and editing to effectively convey the story.  He also uses some unusual camera angles that definitely take advantage of his expressive lead.  In one moment in particular, Rebecca starts interacting with a photo of her dead grandmother and the camera angle shifts to a perspective that gives the audience a great peek into Rebecca's mind.  It's a small detail, but one I appreciated.  On the other hand, toward the end of the film, there are some scenes shot at night that include quick cuts that rendered the action nearly incomprehensible.

I was previously unfamiliar with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but I did enjoy this film for what it was.  Movies like Annie and Pollyanna are not amongst my favorites, but I can appreciate them for what they are.  The story will be very familiar to viewers and the resolution is a little too pat (there's never really a transition from stern to loving in the aunts; it just happens).  Still, it is well shot and Mary Pickford is great in the title role.  Even if you just watch a couple of the vignettes from Rebecca's life, it's worth it to see the biggest actress of the time working her magic.

Watched on YouTube (78 minutes in seven parts)
Photo from Virtual Learning Connections