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To me, this movie is perfection.

Powerful

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

An even earlier Pickford outing, available as a bonus on the 10/10 Milestone DVD, Heart o' the Hills, is the delightfully comic western, M'liss (1918), in which Mary is supported by Thomas Meighan. In fact, it's rather surprising to find a movie as sophisticated as this at such an early date. The acting is natural yet heartily ingratiating with wonderful performances from the whole cast, particularly Pickford, Theodore Roberts (her dad), Charles Ogle (the stage driver, Yuba Bill), Tully Marshall (the judge), Val Paul and Winifred Greenwood (the villains), and William H. Brown (the sheriff). Writer Frances Marion not only delivers fully rounded characterizations, but some really deft insert titles. One note of caution, however, is that director Marshall Neilan and his cutter use a grammar which some people may find difficult to master. I had to switch the movie off halfway through and watch it again from the beginning, as I'd missed half the information the director was so deftly putting across to audiences who were paying attention. None of this pandying to boobs and idiots that modern movies go for, with essential information constantly repeated. If you don't store the M'liss info the first time you read or see it, you'll miss out. That's the way to make a picture! Lavishly produced, beautifully photographed and set, M'liss is both a revelation and a delight.

Not surprisingly, Mary Pickford plays a teenager in this film, though at the time she was 28. She played a young girl or teen in most of her movies of the period and the audiences of the day ate them up--making her the biggest film star of the day. While today you might laugh at the idea of a woman playing such childish roles, they were often very, very good--such as in "Sparrows" and "Daddy Long Legs". This one, however, is very far from her best. While it's enjoyable enough to make it worth seeing, the film lacks the charm of most of her other full-length films.Mary plays a "Tom boy" in this film--again, a pretty familiar role. However, seeing her running about shooting everyone with a slingshot and the infusion of so much humor (or, attempted humor) make this one a bit harder to enjoy.Her father is an alcoholic who she loves despite this. Oddly, after drinking heavily, the film says he is having a case of the D.T.s--like it is funny! First, D.T.s occur when you are withdrawing from alcohol--not when you are intoxicated. Second, the condition often resulted in death! Not exactly a funny topic for the film! In another part of the country, a rich man has just died. However, his servants are evil and conspire to locate the long-lost heiress (the simple poor girl, Mary Pickford) and steal her fortune. And, in the process, they end up framing the poor old school teacher--and the locals are thrilled with the idea of a hanging! Will the nice school teacher escape the crazed mob? Will Mary get what's rightfully hers? Will the town get some sort of "necktie party" to give them what they want? Tune in to see.The film has a few problems other than Mary's penchant for using her slingshot. First, the way the innocent school teacher got convicted seemed a bit silly. Second, there is a romance at the end between Mary and the school teacher that seemed to come from out of no where--plus it seemed a bit inappropriate due to her age and his position as her teacher. Overall, a bit of a disappointment. Whatchable but not especially good or deep.

It may not be Pickford's best movie, but it's definitely her cutest. I can't help but be a little biased, however: I always felt that her melodramas were a little too dated, and the ones that really last are these scantily plotted, silly comedies that don't take themselves too seriously.It's priceless to see her "hold up" a stagecoach with a sling shot, or wonder what "-??-" means when put between "none of your" and "business." (They already showed a willingness to print "damn," so that narrows it down.)The inter titles are funny, although in a silent film they don't have to be, and the supporting characters are just as fun to watch as Mary. It's on the "Heart o' the Hills" DVD that came out in '05 as only a special feature, but it's the more enjoyable of the two.

This story boasts a fine silent film star cast, including Pickford, Meighan, and Blue, and the screenplay by Frances Marion has funny moments and title cards to go along with the story of a backwards girl fighting to save the local innocent schoolteacher from being convicted for the murder of her father.I loved the moment where Pickford confronts Meighan about the murder. Their faces are close together through the bars of the jail cell and they communicate with eyes and facial gestures alone (no title cards) so that we know what is transpiring between them without a word needing to be said. Beautiful. Meighan had such a strong masculine face, no wonder why he was so popular in the silent days as a leading man and why all the actresses loved to work with him.At times the story seems rambling, but half-way through it becomes very cohesive and you really learn to care for these characters and their fate.