Main Cast: Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Helen Jerome Eddy, Charles Ogle, Marjorie Daw
Release Year: 1917
Country: US
Run Time: 77 minutes
Plot
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was the first film version of the Kate Douglas Wiggin novel and play. Mary Pickford, 23 years old but looking at least ten years younger, stars as the spunky little girl who is left with her tight-lipped aunt Helen Jerome Eddy by her impoverished mother. It's an uphill battle, but Rebecca manages to spread a little sunshine around the staid New England community where her aunt resides. Her reward comes when she is "all grow'd up," at which time she falls in love with handsome Eugene O'Brien. Yes, we know that none of this happens in the 1938 Shirley Temple version. Remember, though, that Mary Pickford could play a little girl who grows up in the course of a single film, while Shirley was stuck at age 9, whether she liked it or not. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite the seeming limitations of silent film, this may be the truest and the most watchable version of Kate Douglas Wiggin's novel, with brisk pacing, vividly drawn characters, and a totally beguiling performance at its core from Mary Pickford, who is able to pull off the impersonation of a plucky 13-year-old with amazing success (for this role, it is as they say also about Shakespeare's Juliet, that it takes an adult actress to find the range, sincerity, and passion needed, at least so adults can resonate to the piece). Pickford's eyes are so magnificently expressive that she does with them more than Shirley Temple, in the most familiar sound version, can do with her whole body, her voice, and a locked in musical accompaniment. The supporting performances are excellent as well, and just as carefully drawn and nuanced; indeed, there's a lot to be drawn from Marshall Neilan's direction, even 90 years later -- one suspects that Michael Landon, in planning the Little House on the Prairie TV series, took some cues from it either directly or indirectly, and more than one filmmaker aiming for family fare in the 21st century could still learn something from the light touch and deceptively delicate textures employed here. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Mayme Kelso - Jane Sawyer; Wesley Barry; Josephine Crowell - Miranda Sawyer; Emma Gordes - Clara Belle Simpson; Jack McDonald - Rev. Jonathan Smellie; ZaSu Pitts; Kate Toncray - Mrs. Simpson; Frank Turner - Mr. Simpson; Violet Wilkey - Minnie Smellie; Jane Wolff - Mrs. Randall
Credit
Marshall Neilan - Director, Gaylord Carter - Composer (Music Score), Walter Stradling - Cinematographer, Frances Marion - Screenwriter, Kate Douglas Wiggin - Book Author
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) is a silent film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. This version is notable for having been adapted by famed female screenwriter Frances Marion. The film was made by the "Mary Pickford Company" and was an acclaimed box office smash.
