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| "I'm supposed to be how old?" |
Directed by William Beaudine
Starring Mary Pickford, William Haines, Walter James
Produced by Mary Pickford Company
In a small neighborhood of New York, a young woman in her 30s suffers from a mental condition that makes he believe she is still 12 years old. She lives with her father and brother and they do their best to indulge Annie's fantasy. In fact, it seems like the entire neighborhood is willing to go along with the charade. However, soon the streets erupt in violence and Annie begins falling in love with one of the gangsters. Will tragedy be enough to shake Annie from her fantasy?
Okay, I lied.
The film is really about a 12 year old girl. She has an older brother and a father she lives with. She engages in some battles with other children.
And the 12 year old girl is played by 32 year old Mary Pickford.
Pickford's been just barely able to get away with it in previous films, but here the age discrepancy is just embarrassing. She's a foot taller than the other kids. Every close up shows you the face of a mature woman.
However, the Pickford formula is the Pickford formula and it shall be applied without deviation. If she can get the curls in her hair tight enough and make enough ridiculous facial expressions, she can be a teenager forever, right?
Wrong. And the results are creepier here than in any of he previous work. On the one hand, she's in love with Joe Kelly, a relationship that as scripted is completely inappropriate. She's 12 and he seems to be in his 20s. On the other hand, a young boy is pining for Annie, which means a 10 year old has to act like he's attracted to someone who is in reality three times older.
The woefully miscast lead is not the only failing here. We have yet another silent that dramatically shifts its tone in a jarring way. It's light and comedic and then... Annie's policeman father is gunned down. It's a shocking turn and the mood never lightens again.
The film does have one of my favorite awful plot contrivances ever. Annie's brother Tim mistakenly thinks Joe killed Pa Rooney. So Tim shoots Joe, then Tim confesses to the police. Annie races to the hospital to give Joe a blood transfusion. Why? Well, if Joe dies, then Tim will go to jail. But if Joe lives, it becomes okay that Tim shot him on a crowded street and then confessed to his crime? Apparently, because not only does Tim avoid a cell, the epilogue shows he is now a policeman himself!
There are some good aspects to the movie. The supporting cast is great, especially Gordon Griffith as Tim Rooney. They also fill out some of the gang with great looking character actors. It's well paced with the exception of an over-long opening fight in the streets between the child gang members.
It's just so hard to get past the distracting lead performance. I wish the alternate take I describe in the opening paragraph was the real movie. It would both make for a satisfying film and provide a commentary on Pickford's career. She believes she's Peter Pan, never to grow up while the cameras are rolling. Unfortunately, reality is different.
*1/2 out of *****
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