Mary Pickford's popularity was off the charts in the year of 1918. Every movie fan loved her image of the innocent curly-haired girl/woman whose roles made her the sympathetic heroine. But the actress longed to branch out to tackle some meatier portrayals of personalities going against the grain of her likeability. The golden opportunity came when her associated scriptwriter Francis Marion came up with the idea to adapt William John Locke's 1913 "Stella Maris" into a movie.
The story about two girls, one wealthy, pretty, much loved but paralyzed in bed, and the other, orphaned, poor, homely and loathed by many her entire life, presented Pickford with the perfect opportunity to play an "ugly duckling" while still retaining her cutesy image. Through the advancement of film technology, Pickford became the first major movie star to play two roles simultaneously, with both characters in the same frame in January 1918's "Stella Maris."
Director Marshall Neilan and his tech crew were able to pull off scenes of the two Mary's sharing seamless split-screens, giving viewers a realist look of the two polar opposites of the Mary's interacting with one another.
Pickford's performance(s) in "Stella Maris," especially playing the poor girl named Unity, has been cited as one of her most dramatic and convincing roles in her long, storied film career. Even Paramount Studio's president, Adolph Zukor, who was horrified at his prized actress appearing in such a sorry state as Unity, called her performance "the most remarkable thing which Mary Pickford has ever done for the screen."
Even though her Stella Maris character is adorable in the movie, she lives in a world of naivete, whose sheltered life gives her an unrealistic, pastel view of everyday life. When she meets the tough but downtrodden girl Unity, Stella has a tough time understanding the incredible burdens and beatings the orphan has experienced. The transformation the actress Pickford gives Unity in appearance, the drab clothes, the pulled back hair, the curved-spined back hobble in her step, is unlike anything the actress had performed before. And to contrast Unity's sad sack manifestation against the Pickford image in Stella in the same frame is a contrast unique in cinema. Movie goers were so impressed by the film that "Stella Maris" was the year's number two box office hit.
