Review: The Mary Pickford Signature Collection

Words do not fully express how awesome Mary Pickford was. Taking a Valentino Month break lets give the girl a long overdue review. In April the St Clair Entertainment company gave a long overdue release to 4 of Mary's key 'Little Girl' films. Many of them had not previously been released on DVD which is just down right shocking. You can get 'Secrets' but you couldnt get 'Pollyanna'? Come on!

When the release was announced I was skeptical beyond belief. For starters amazon had it listed for just under $4. $1 a film seems quite cheap...how bad quality would it be? And at the time the film names weren't released so one wasnt quite sure what they would be getting. Some Silent DVD releases can be truely terrible with looped music, bad quality picture, and films run at the wrong speed (looking silly). I feared for the worst.

But much to my surprise...it actually had a menu and everything! Many Valentino films dont get that (and when they do its not so good...The Valentino Collection is the only one I've been impressed with). So lets take a run down. PLUS I got a bonus film review for ya. Tugged my heart strings and what not.

The Films

On this DVD we get 4 major 'America's Sweetheart' films: Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Pollyanna (1919), and Little Annie Rooney (1925). I believe all 4 had not seen a DVD release before so that is great right there.

Picture quality for all 4 films is pretty good, no complaints there. The DVD states when you first play that all films have been digitally restored and I believe it shows. Top quality.

However they must have blown their entire budget on the picture quality because the sound is just about what I feared. Each film has a different looped soundtrack...after only one viewing its hard to discern how often it loops but I'd guess about 4 different 'bits' in the same style just looped over and over and over. You can tell because at random moments it will go silent, then reloop. Extremely random (action could be happening or a character could be in the middle of an emotion and BAM mute). In fairness to the collection this is not the first or last time this will happen...but it is a CRYING shame. I'd gladly pay well over $4 to not be so annoyed I have to mute the damn thing.

Valentino's 'Blood and Sand' suffered a similar problem on the release I own. And it was annoying...but not distracting to the point that I muted it. Sad to say the Mary Picford Signature Collection is WAAAAY worse. I'd like to cite Annie Rooney since it destroyed the emotional climax for me. On this soundtrack we hear a carnival child like styled music thats cute and upbeat, but slows occasionally. Annie Rooney has its cuteness but there are some heavy moments...and it failed EVERY TIME.

In the scene where her father is shot at a massive party we hear this upbeat carnival music. The emotional climax of the movie involves another officer coming to tell Little Annie (who is waiting for her father to return home, and surprise him being its his birthday) that her Daddy 'wont be coming home ever again'. HEAVY and amazingly acted. But the carnival music is in full happy pitch...you basically are hearing 'do do do do do do *cheery happy music*' while Mary Pickford looks like her heart was just ripped out. Could be funny, but it destroys the viewing expierence.

Nice to know the loopy music isnt the same loop for all 4 movies, but that is little consulation.

Features

The Mary Pickford Signature Collection comes with a nice menu and a nice bonus feature: a Mary Pickford poster gallery. The DVD is a little plain itself but the cover is pretty nice. For $4 its hard to complain in this arena.

Overall

I'd give it a B+. Its pretty damn good for $4 but Im still upset at the looped music. The collection actually sold out on amazon (and was going for triple on Ebay) though it seems to be back in stock now. Click here to place your order!