Pickford Review: The Horror that is Kiki

I finally got to view Mary's Kiki today...and it was very very...interesting. I believe it is possibly the most obscene thing ever committed to film (and not only have I viewed Sextette but a preview of Bruno as well!) Unlike Sextette I didn't sit there open mouthed unable to comprehend what I had just saw. With Kiki it was more sad than anything. It was like watching several deaths all at once: BANG the Little Girl BANG Mary Pickford BANG Silent film. And in several ways it literally was: this was one of Mary's biggest failures, and though not her first grown up role it was quite a definitive one. Horrifyingly definitive. I'm a big fan of 'get these films out where they can be seen'...but honestly if this one never makes DVD its probably for the better...I'm surprised Mary fought Rosita so hard...I think THIS is the one I would have burned.


Plot

Rehearsals are in order, and as the chorus girls practice business goes on about them. The star of the show Paulette Vaile (Margaret Livingston) is having a hissy fit and refusing to go on. The apparent honcho Victor Randall (Reginald Denny) is having it out with his frenemy Alfred Rapp (Joseph Cawthorn) over the matter to the beat of the music. Through this argument we find Victor had once been married to Paulette, and Alfred seems to be her pet and sweet talks her way back into his heart from time to time. They seriously go on and off every 5 minutes despite being divorced. Alfred and some other office folk tell Victor he needs a woman around, if not Paulette then someone.

Meanwhile some uproar occurs and a girl is thrown out the door on her butt. She starts screaming in french at the stage hands but to no avail, she's been fired. She is KIKI (Mary Pickford)! Sashaying her way up to the office she picks a fight with Alfred, and sweet talks her way to Victor. She bullshits him left and right about what happened, and he says hes sorry but he must stand by his stage hands decisions. She sweet talks him more, then throws a tantrum, and gets her job back. She opens her purse to get her powder puff and out falls a bunch of newspaper clippings of Victor, revealing she is in love with him. He seems to not notice or care as he just wants her out of his office as she seems a tad insane.

Kiki gets her job back, and Paulette agrees to go on with the show. The show begins and Kiki becomes distracted when she realizes Victor and Alfred are watching her. She becomes so distracted she messes up the entire routine, looking like it was a comedy bit when in reality it was just a disaster (including pants falling down and a drum on her butt!) After the show she again gets fired, and again sneaks into Victor's office where for some reason he has been all night refusing to go to bed...I don't know it didn't seem very clear. Maybe he was drunk. Kiki tries to sweet talk again and he says he wont give her job back, but he'll let her live with him if she'll agree to be his girlfriend. It really makes no sense since he doesn't seem to even remotely like her. Kiki is actually reluctant (again it makes no sense) but ends up going with him anyways.

At the apartment drinking (or is it MORE drinking) commences and Kiki is all ready to fall in love until she realizes Victor is staring lovingly at the portrait of Paulette BEHIND her...breaking her heart. She gets upset and he apologizes, then puts the moves on her. Kiki freaks, smacks the hell out of him, and locks herself in his bedroom. She then has a talk with another portrait of Paulette vowing she will make him love HER and not that skank. The next morning the soon to be long suffering servant Eddie (Phil Tead) tries to serve breakfast, and Kiki goes so ape shit on him I wonder if she is possibly bi polar. She steals a telegram from Paulette, something she keeps up till the very end of the film. Victor goes all weird too, telling Eddie to kick her out. He fails (as she is insane) and we find a week later much to Alfred's amusement Kiki is still there and Victor cant make her leave and he believes that Paulette hasn't contacted him at all like she usually does (though she has, Kiki as said is hiding the letters). He tells Alfred to get rid of her and Alfred kinda tries but he fails as Kiki charms him.

After being charmed Alfred reveals the letters thing, and Victor confronts Kiki. He ends up thanking her, as he kinda needed to get over that skank. However this very convenient moment Paulette calls (in fairness Alfred told him about it like 20 mins before) and Victor melts all over again. Kiki tries to interrupt the phone call, but only kinda succeeds as Victor ends up telling Paulette to meet him for dinner. They argue more and he leaves for his dinner. Alfred comes and eventually gets the loon to leave.

However down in the lobby she sees the crazy couple and in a VERY bold moment gets herself alone...in a locked room...with Paulette. She goes ape shit on her and literally PULLS A KNIFE on her then proceeds to chase her round the room! It is possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. Paulette gets rescued, and Kiki feigns a fainting. Paulette and Victor leave to celebrate their reconciliation (as they planned before Kiki went mad). Later Victor returns and confides to the frightened Eddie that he left Paulette for the night and was done with women forever. He then goes into his bedroom to find Kiki asleep and back into the living room there's Paulette...in other words he failed. Paulette wants a piece of him, but eventually she finds Sleeping Kiki.

Then a gaggle of men arrive and explain that after she fainted, she didn't come to and a doctor was called. The doctor is convinced its some rare disease where she cant move at all and may be ''asleep'' for 2 years! Kiki is pretty convincing, though we audience get to see shes faking. The group leaves, and Paulette insists Victor shall come to her hotel. Victor tries to get ready and has to move Kiki around (she was lying on his hat and coat, etc). Paulette keeps screaming to him to hurry up, and he confides in Kiki that he wont be with that woman, and that shes kinda hot now that shes quiet (I think we'd all agree). Victor goes to lay her back on the bed (she had been moved on a couch during the explanation scene) and she kisses him. Shocked he goes out and tells Paulette to go away, which makes her mad saying their through.

She leaves and Victor tells Kiki to knock it off, and he cant seem to make up his mind about whether he likes her now or not. Paulette calls to make sure their through, and he assures her they are. Kiki pretends to leave, and Victor freaks and chases after her...only to find her patiently waiting out in the hall. They kiss, apparently to live happily ever after. The End.

Production

This film...is so interesting for so many reasons. It was first made in 1926 but Norma Talmadge, and apparently it was good (it still exists, but I haven't seen it). It did well at the box office and when Mary was looking for a new film it was Norma's husband Joseph Schenck (who was also part of UA) that suggested the film. As Whitfield pointed out the fact that Mary didn't take utter control of this film probably shows just how heart broken she was by the lukewarm reception to Taming of the Shrew (1929) as well as the failure of Forever Yours (never finished, became Secrets).

However it wasn't some slap dash production. Sam Taylor directed and Busby Berkley (a no0b at the time) did choreography. Reginald Denny and Margaret Livingston both had long careers before and (in Denny's case) after this film.

Mary had made 2 talkies before this, Coquette which was successful, and Taming of the Shrew which was not. Both were in 1929 and you gotta remember this was extremely new technology at the time. Everything that had been was now limited, as mics were extremely sensitive. Actors had to re-question everything they had ever done, and Mary was said to have had severe mic fright (for her radio show they had to hide it in a lamp). She would only make one more talkie (and for that matter film, at least acting wise) Secrets in 1933.

I think what is also of interest is by the time Taming was filmed, her and Douglas were on the rocks. One thing that is extremely interesting at least to me is the theme of cheating or a man who loves another in these last 2 films...like she had to work that out. At the very least the personal troubles probably didn't help her decision making.

Mary was 39 when this film was made. And as we all know she had made a career mostly off playing little girls...not by choice at that! She first tried rebelling in 1923 with Rosita and 1924's Dorothy Vernon. However it wasn't until 1927 she went for broke, cut the curls, and did My Best Girl, following it with Coquette. A lot of people don't understand why Mary seemed to fail talkies after being consistently popular from flickers onward. Most of the reason was she was getting older, and she grew tired of playing such young roles. When she quit being the little girl, she lost popularity. But she quit playing the little girl right as silents went out, and right as her marriage went out. Neither could have made a transition easy.

Reception

The film lost half its cost, and was a resounding flop. Mary noted months later that she wasn't at her height. Her drinking got worse, and soon she and Doug were over. She made one more try at talkies with the excellent, "Secrets" in 1933 but it wasn't enough....she never appeared onscreen again.

Review

As I sat watching this film I kept trying to put my finger on WHY it was so wrong. Despite everything horrifying about it, Mary is doing her best and its hard not to enjoy her. There are even times when it shines and you have to wonder why it went so wrong. Much like the end of her career I think there are numerous reasons.

One of the biggest is the character of Kiki is just SOOOO wrong for Mary. Mary was a FANTASTIC comedienne (see My Best Girl) but with sex as the focus it just didn't work. Her fame laid with the fact that she was very tiny (under 5 ft), had a large head, and a very childlike build. Kiki seems to be the type of character that would have been better with a tall leggy comedienne, or at least someone who could be taken as conventionally sexy (Marilyn Monroe, Suzanne Somers, even a Pamela Anderson). Mary could be sexy in her own way but it wasn't going to be with a Little Annie haircut. Wardrobing couldn't have helped either...for any era let alone 1930s Kiki's main outfit (the curled feather cap, polka dot blouse, and dark skirt) looks cartoonish and weird. It also puts the focus on legs which Mary just did NOT possess (in the scene where she looses her pants its quite obvious your looking at a 40 year old woman's legs). During the middle of the film Kiki is running around in this robe thing...its so horrifyingly bad I don't think Elton John would wear it! To make matters worse it too accentuates how tiny Mary was. During the dance number sequence she's supposed to be choir girl in the background, wearing a tuxedo. Though its a fantastic sequence the placement (alongside tall lanky choir girls) and the outfit (a man's tux) make Mary look just like she was: a 40 year old woman. That does NOT work for 20 something lanky Kiki.

Even if Mary had been more physically right for the part she was still too damned old. Old sexy women are WRONG (this means you Madonna and Sex and the City). Don't send me hate mail...what I mean is once you hit 40 hot pants are a no no (hell I'm 21 and hot pants are already a no no!). Be sophisticated. Kiki is anything but sophisticated. Mary had convincingly pulled off a teenager just a few years prior (Sparrows) so its not like she was just old and haggard. In Secrets she looks fantastic, and even kinda pulls off the teenaged version of ''Mary'' (though I feel her 20s-30s scenes were way more convincing). She had aged, but it could be hidden. For some reason that just didn't work in Kiki...close ups of her are about as terrifying as close ups of the plagued Mabel Normand in "Molly O". Add to her other physical obstacles this just comes off as extremely unconvincing. Another thing to wonder is just how old Kiki is supposed to be. One would guess her early 20s. There's an ironic scene where Victor tells Paulette of Kiki, "She's not a bad little kid". Is this supposed to be pedophile-esque?

I think overall Kiki is the kind of film Mary COULD have made had she escaped the little girl thing 20 years prior. But sex comedy has a limited shelf life...she's probably better off to have escaped it.

Mary's acting doesn't fit either. Honestly I have trouble seeing how anyone could LIKE Kiki as a person...she's INSANE and not very redeeming. Instead of being the spunky American girl who rises up and gets her way (per the usual Pickford films) she's a crazy bi polar French girl who lacks class and berates servants and gets her way just barely by being crazy. That in and of itself probably doomed this film. Kiki seems to be such a cartoonish character that big acting should be expected...yet (a Pickford rarity) Mary seems to overdo it especially in the beginning of the film. The moments she does try to bring some sympathy to Kiki all the problems just reappear...especially how old she looks and how cartoonish the wardrobe is.

I don't know why Mary was so bent on accents...I cant think of any other silent to talkies actor who went for accents at every turn. Of her 4 talkies 3 involve accents...and none of them work on any level. Coquette (Southern accent) is vaguely convincing, but unnecessary. Taming of the Shrew (odd British accent) is disturbingly bad, as is Kiki's French accent. It comes off as cartoonish and it doesn't always stick around. Any time Kiki has an extended rant she drops her accent at least once...especially in her first rant in the office and her rant later in the apartment when she talks about her love of Victor. Hilariously at one point (office rant) she almost sounded German after Canadian. It just doesn't work, and its probably one more thing that turned off viewers.

Despite these extremely fatal flaws Mary as a comedienne does shine through at points. When we first see her she's being thrown on her butt, which is an apt metaphor for what this film did to her career. When she fails to get her job back via begging she throws a hissy fit complete with kicks and whining. The dance number is fantastic, and despite its distracting issues mentioned above its almost Chaplin comparable. Everything that can go wrong does: her pants fall down, she lands in a drum, and she gets caught on Paulette. When the curtain goes down she and Paulette get in a cat fight, which is also fantastic.

As she begs for her job back after messing up she suggests to the depressed Victor that they commit suicide, and that the worst part is being talked out of it. Despite how morbid it sounds her delivery is hilarious. Kiki really REALLY hates Eddie (for no good reason) and right after the telegram business is discovered they get into a major fight which is fantastic. Her attempts to distract Victor during the phone call are mostly brilliant, though a few of them fall flat. As Victor prepares to go to his dinner with Paulette he and Kiki argue, as Kiki helps him dress in another great sequence.

I can't decide if the confrontation scene is fantastic or horrible. It is by far the most 'Sextette' part of this film. Whether a horrible misstep or genius I got to say its memorable, I will give Mary that.

An interesting thing to me about Kiki is it comes off very modern for 1931. It doesn't suffer the same troubles as other early talkies, and it flows a lot better than Secrets (which came later) does. There's no weird dialogue lapses and no forced attempts for silent acting. I realize I was viewing an archive print so I'm not sure how the audio necessarily sounded back in the day but some restoration is needed. The opening 5 mins or so involves the rehearsal song while Paulette and Victor have their little fits. The audio is extremely choppy and its impossible to hear the words over the music (and hard to hear the music at that!) It did get much better after that, but still I think some restoration is in order if it were ever to be screened or released.

I'm told some of the sequences come straight from the 1926 version. Honestly I think some of the plot and a lot of the characters fell flat. Certain points are hard to follow, and other moments just seem forced (such as the explanation as to why Kiki was in his bedroom...I mean would you let her in there after she tried to stab your ex wife?) The worst part is the main part (the love story) is extremely forced and never quite becomes interesting. Kiki loves the guy, but why? She says she's had sugar daddies and could easily get a new one...so why is this one so great? And why does he proposition her, only to change his mind and then act like a total douche until the last 10 minutes of the film? My guess is they were going for 'this poor guy is conflicted' but he mainly comes off as a guy who just cant make up his mind and would rather let a psychopath live with him then deal with her. When he does admit he likes her he immediately backtracks despite sending Paulette home. It just makes NO sense or sympathy! When they finally kiss one just doesn't care...no emotions are satisfied.

The character of Kiki isn't that great either. She's over dramatic, and for a French girl she's extremely low brow and unclassy (the way she eats, her penchant for butt kicking, etc). I'm sure the French have their chavs too but 1931 America wasn't going to ''get'' that. She's hard to sympathize with...she seems to love this guy and oh he doesn't love her...but in the mean time she's sneaking around, trying to kill the servant, picking cat fights, and eventually chasing his ex in a locked room with a knife. Maybe it was a horrible misstep in spunky, or maybe it was just a horrible misstep.

One final note I'd like to touch on is the Douglas angle. Kiki and Secrets both contain story lines that seem to parallel her troubles with Doug. In Secrets the long loving ''Mary'' is humilated when her husband's mistress shows up at their ball. He tries to apologize and admits the affair, and she graciously takes the news and admits she knows about ALL the women he's been playing around with. They kiss and make up, and we later see they're together well into their 80s.

In Kiki she wants a man who is madly in love with another woman, despite it being a very tumultious relationship. Paulette is a tall sexy lanky woman (the type who probably should have played Kiki) and is a bit of a diva. Before Kiki really even knows Victor they hate each other (cat fighting after Kiki's accidental scene stealing). When Victor tells her hes over all women she asks, "Even Paulette?" and when he says yes she says, "Oh Good!" After slapping the hell out of Victor and locking herself in his bedroom she takes up a picture of Paulette and rationalizes he is still in love with her. She starts yelling at the photo, telling her how she doesnt deserve him and how she Kiki will win him yet. She then smashes the hell out of the photo and frame and starts her journey to win him over.

And then of course later once Victor and Paulette reconcile Kiki locks her in the room, confronts her just as violently as the picture, pulls out the knife, and chases her around. Usually this would result in some sort of arrest. In the film Kiki ''faints'' and through clever manuevering still wins the man.

One must wonder just what Mary was trying to convey in those scenes. It was during this time Sylvia Ashley first popped up, and she was definitly very Paulette (though she was as uncouth as Kiki herself). The marriage had been shaken before, but it was during this time it was shaken to its core. By the time Secrets was filmed they were basically seperated. Secrets is a fine piece of acting, but I am certain many a woman would love to act at those Kiki fantasies.

Release

To my knowledge Kiki has never been officially released in any format. According to some googling a few people claimed to have a bootleg (in poor quality) but I have yet to see one for sale anywhere including Ebay or ioffer. UCLA houses the print I seen, and they have screened it from time to time (last fall was one). It doesnt show up much, probably for good reason (I suggest bringing booze if you can).