The Love Light

Mary Pickford is worth watching even if the melodramatic plot wears a bit thin toward the end. But this movie isn't one of her finest hours.

A bucolic Italian light house keeper (Pickford) rescues an "American" sailor from the sea after he is "shipwrecked." She should have known that he wasn't American because he can speak more than one language.

During the course of this movie, set in the time of the First World War, Pickford's character looses both her brothers in the war (one through her own actions), falls in love with and marries a German spy who commits suicide after she turns him in, goes insane, gives birth and has her baby stolen by her best friend, and welcomes home her old boyfriend who has been blinded in the war. She is not having a good day.

If you liked "Sophie's Choice", you might like this movie. For me, it was just too much contrived melodrama. The moral that war destroys, not just the soldiers at the front, but the lives of their friends, family, and loved ones at home, is a valid one. It just isn't conveyed with much subtlety by this movie.

With her love off to war, a young woman operates the lighthouse near her home on the coast of Italy. One day, finding an American seaman washed up on the shore, she takes him home & nurses him. Romance blossoms and they marry. But little does she know that THE LOVE LIGHT she beams to him from atop her tower every midnight will have tragic consequences she cannot begin to imagine...

While traveling in Italy with her husband, Frances Marion met a woman whose story during The Great War was so compelling that she knew at once it would make a great movie. Marion was a screenwriter on the ascendant and her best friend was motion picture star Mary Pickford. Little Mary, who liked the idea, not only had Frances write it, but direct the film as well.

It turned out beautifully, with Pickford - in a daring departure from her little girl roles - giving one of her best performances. Her emotional display at the multitude of troubles thrown her way never wallows into histrionics. One need only look at this film to be assured, if there was ever any doubt, that America's Sweetheart was an excellent artist, as well as a huge celebrity.

This movie is also testament to one of the industry's supremely talented women. The Silent Era was a time when women were given enormous freedom to display their gifts in Hollywood, not just as actresses, but also as directors & writers. Frances Marion would not direct many films, but she was the consummate screenwriter. For over two decades she was the world's highest paid individual in her profession, male or female. She was also the first person to receive two Academy Awards. She would eventually write the scenarios for over 150 motion pictures, a large number of which are still considered to be classics.

This was the film debut for Fred Thomson, who plays the American seaman. A decathlon champion & Presbyterian minister, he had met Marion during the War. It was love at first sight for both of them & they double honeymooned in Europe with Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks. Not wanting to act, he'd eventually been persuaded to take the part in THE LOVE LIGHT by the two ladies. He proved to be a natural. A very moral man, he would find an outlet for expressing his ethics through Hollywood Westerns. With Thomson rapidly becoming one of the most popular cinema cowboys, he & Marion built a huge mansion in the Beverly Hills and began raising a family. Tragically, Fred Thomson would die on Christmas Day, 1928, from tetanus caused by a scratch on his ankle from a rusty nail. He was only 38 years old.

THE LOVE LIGHT enjoys excellent production values, sets & photography. It has been restored to a pristine condition and will be enjoyed & appreciated for many years to come.

"The Love Light" has some very good material and gives Mary Pickford a good vehicle for displaying her range of talents. The story also is often compelling, in its look at the ways that World War I affects the lives of the inhabitants of a small Italian town. But it also has some flaws in the story and character development that detract from its effectiveness. It's a good movie, but not one of Pickford's best features.

The first part of the story is a light-hearted introduction to the town and its residents. Bit-by-bit, the war begins to affect their lives, until the tone of the movie has become quite serious. This part is done very well, with good writing and craftsmanship, and it is effective. Both the setting and characters are also very believable, helped by some very good photography. The main part of the movie, as things get more complicated, has some compelling moments, but it is hampered by having too many implausible developments that make it seem forced at times. Another difficulty is that Pickford's character sometimes makes rather foolish decisions and behaves in ways that just don't ring true with the bright, resourceful character that she has established. This and other problems detract somewhat from the emotional impact of some of the key developments.

It thus ends up being a cut below some of Pickford's other melodramas. But it's still a movie worth seeing for its strengths. Because it starts with a good foundation, it holds up fairly well despite its flaws.

From time to time it's very advisable for the aristocracy to watch some silent film about the harsh life of the common people in order to remind themselves of the privileges and the comfortable life that they have enjoyed since the beginning of mankind or even before… in comparison with the complicated and hard work that common people have to endure everyday since the aristocrats rule the world.

And that's what happens in "The Love Light", the first film directed by Dame France Marion who will be famous afterwards in the silent and talkie world thanks overall to her work as a screenwriter; better for her, certainly, because her career as a film director doesn't impress this German count.

The film tells the story of Dame Angela Carlotti ( Dame Mary Pickford ) a merry Italian girl who lives surrounded by a "picturesque squalor" ( an important difference of opinion between upper and low classes; aristocrats prefers to live surrounded by "picturesque luxury"… ); she has two brothers and a secret admirer but all she gives him in return is indifference. Destiny begins to work hard and pretty soon war is declared and Dame Angela's two brothers enlist and in the next reel both are dead. But destiny is even crueller and Dame Angela meanwhile falls in love with… a German!! And to make things worse, she doesn't know that her Teutonic sweetie is a spy and that the light signals that she sends to him every night from the lighthouse she maintains thinking that is a love signal, don't mean "Ich Liebe Dich" but "Sink Any Damn Italian Boat At Sea"…

Fortunately for Dame Angela, pretty soon her sweetie German spy will be found by the neighbours in her house in which she was hiding him ( a not strange fact, indeed, because it is not an easy task for a German to go unnoticed… ) but the German spy will prefer to die before being captured by those Italians.

From that German love, a half-Teutonic baby will born ( the wicked Destiny at full speed… ) but a greedy neighbour who has a particular idea of motherhood will carry away her son with the consent of a Catholic nun who has taken the Council of Trent to extremes… a fact that will put Dame Angela at the verge of insanity.

But meanwhile Dame Angela's secret admirer has returned from the war and you can think that finally Dame Angela's sorrowful life will improve; a tremendous mistake because Destiny has in store for her that the returned soldier is blind. But as they say in Germany, it may be a blessing in disguise and finally Dame Angela will recover her son and will start a new life with her blind sweetie in a poor Italian village in what it is supposed to be a happy ending for the common people.

As this German count said before, it was much better for Dame Frances Marion that she continued her career as a screenwriter, because as can be seen in "The Love Light", she had a lot of imagination to invent incredible stories, ja wohl!… but a completely different subject is to direct films and her silent debut lacks emotion and rhythm in spite of the effort of Dame Pickford to involve the audience with her many disgraces. The nonexistent film narrative causes indifference in the spectator making this the kind of film where only Dame Pickford herself provides the interest and not her circumstances.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must send Morse signals from the Schloss north tower to one of his Teutonic rich heiress.

This film was a rare departure from little-girl roles for Mary Pickford, who almost succeeds in giving a perfectly moving performance. The script, by Frances Marion, throws Pickford's Angela so many curves that it becomes tiring watching her sometimes-hammy reactions. Marion was Pickford's best friend, and she hand a hand in as many as seventeen of America's Sweetheart's movies. One can hope these were more successful.

Marion, director as well as writer, crammed so many melodramatic topics into The Love Light that one feels as if she thought she'd never work on a film again. Spies, unrequited love, blindness, war, betrayal, death, theft, natural disasters, insanity, and a lynch mob on top of everything else. These are enough concepts to deal with comfortably in at least two movies, but they are all unhappily jammed into about 90 minutes.

Marion's husband Fred Thomson is easy on the eyes and natural on camera as the American that Italian Angela takes into her home. The other players are mostly standard overactors, with the possible exception of Edward Philips as Angela's charming younger brother Mario.

Another thing to beware: the all-too-modern score recently imposed upon it by Maria Newman. At times it seems as if she hadn't even seen the movie.

There are some good moments ("Stewed Chicken", for instance), but overall it's only for fans of the star and writer/director.