Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Marshall Neilan

Writers:

Frances Marion (writer)
Charlotte Thompson (play)

Release Date:

22 September 1917 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

The end of Rebecca's circus career.

Plot:

With her family in financial difficulties, Rebecca is sent to live with her two strict, unfeeling aunts...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Mary Pickford	...	Rebecca Randall
Eugene O'Brien	...	Adam Ladd
Helen Jerome Eddy	...	Hannah Randall
Charles Ogle	...	Mr. Cobb
Marjorie Daw	...	Emma Jane Perkins
Mayme Kelso	...	Jane Sawyer
Jane Wolfe	...	Mrs. Randall (as Jane Wolff)
Josephine Crowell	...	Miranda Sawyer
Jack McDonald	...	Reverend Jonathan Smellie
Violet Wilkey	...	Minnie Smellie
F.A. Turner	...	Mr. Simpson (as Frank Turner)
Kate Toncray	...	Mrs. Simpson
Emma Gordes	...	Clara Belle Simpson

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Pleasanton, California, USA

Company:

Mary Pickford Company

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Charlotte Thompson opened at the Theater Republic on October 3, 1910 and ran for 216 performances.

Movie Connections:

Edited into "The American Experience: Mary Pickford (#17.6)" (2005)

Mary Pickford in Rebecca opens a window on a vanished world

Saw Rebecca for the first time at the UCLA 2004 Restoration Festival. Obviously, Mary Pickford steals the show in a series of vignettes loosely tied together by screenwriter Frances Marion from the original children's story. Pickford is the original coquette, tiny (just watch her dancing with her "beau" in one scene), her head a mass of curls and a spunky spirit that's very twenty first century. However, there is much of the film that is dated and does not resonate with a modern audience.Of course, that's what I enjoyed most about the film- gazing back into a world which no longer exists. We get a glimpse at Victorian sensibilities- the movie was made in 1917-and harks back to an even earlier time. Much of the plot is devoted to Rebecca's heart warming but somewhat patronizing efforts to succor the woeful and shiftless Simpson family (now that's funny). The Simpsons are poor, badly dressed and lack a parlor lamp and a wedding band, until Rebecca comes along.

At times, it's disconcerting to see Pickford play a young teen because for all the prancing,pouting and curl tossing, Mary is clearly an adult woman. Even creepier is the abject attention this little girl is receiving from the village's most eligible bachelor, but I guess back even in 1917 people wanted to see a love story. Still, the film is an old fashioned pleasure, with many charming gags and characters, and over much too soon.