- Actors: Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Mary Louise Miller, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau
- Directors: Tom McNamara, William Beaudine
- Writers: C. Gardner Sullivan, George Marion Jr., Winifred Dunn
- Producers: Mary Pickford
- Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Silent, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Paradox
- Release Date: Oct 1 2002
- Run Time: 84 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00000JWWK
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#80,617 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
- #29 in DVD > Classics > Silent Films > Drama
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Mary Pickford is the cinema's true Peter Pan. She played spunky waifs and adolescent spitfires well into adulthood and remains best remembered as the crusading orphan raging against ruthless villains and natural disasters with pluck, courage, and hope. Sparrows is quintessential Pickford, the tale of a ragtag collection of orphans made virtual slaves by a gnarled, swamp-dwelling Simon Legree. As the big sister/mother hen of the grimy brood, she takes it upon herself to lead them out of this fetid hell through the alligator-infested swamp, with their vicious master in hot pursuit. It's Oliver Twist as a mustache-twirling melodrama, pure sentimental pulp that verges on mawkish but for Pickford's innocence and sincerity and William Beaudine's rousing direction. He turns the climactic chase into a thrilling escape, dodging alligators and leaping across muddy bogs (according to Pickford, who used no stunt double, those are real alligators in the water) but transcends his entire career in one astounding scene. As Pickford cradles a dead child in her arms, Jesus steps forth from a painting and carries his lamb into Heaven, transforming death into a soaring moment of salvation. The restored prints, from the Mary Pickford Foundation, is beautiful and features an organ score by the great Gaylord Carter. The DVD also features a short documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and two early D.W. Griffith shorts starring Pickford: Wilful Peggy (1910) and The Mender of Nets (1912). --Sean Axmaker
Video Details
Mary Pickford's silent masterpiece is an AFI official selection for "100 Years, 100 Stars." Hidden deep in the Southern swamps, the Grimes family operates a "baby farm" where unwanted or "lost" children are cruelly worked and underfed. Mollie (Pickford) leads them through a harrowing escape. Also includes 2 early Mary Pickford shorts directed by D.W. Griffith: "The Mender of Nets" (1912, 16 min.) and "Wilful Peggy" (1910, 17 min.).
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Over the top, but its got Pickford and great camera work,
By
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
A gothic Mary Pickford vehicle that could fairly be derided as being
over-the-top, full of clichés, corny, melodramatic as hell, and predictable. And yet Pickford is so charming, and some of the visual story telling so good, that it's far more watchable than it seems to have any right to be. Pickford is a teenager playing mother to a group of orphans held captive in a southern farm in the middle of the swamps by an evil land owner and his wife who make the worst characters in Dickens look like saints. There are some real moments of tension, and you can see how much it laid the groundwork for the great "Night of the Hunter" years later. And the twist ending is a nice surprise.
5.0 out of 5 stars
My first Mary Pickford Movie,
By Jahlaune Hunt "Jahlaune Hunt" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
I found this a great movie. It was really good. It held my intrest and contrary to some other reviewers that shall remain nameless. So what if the alligators aren't real it's the 20's and a silent pic for christ sake not the terminator!!!I highly reccomend this movie to any one who is new to silents.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Little Mother,
By
This review is from: Sparrows (DVD)
Although this movie has its slow moments, Mary is once again successful in holding her audience. It is too bad she couldn't have children. She was great at caring for the orphans in this movie on and off film. The movie is adventurous and fun and one's heart goes out to the children on the screen.
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