My Best Girl

"My Best Girl" is a sweet and sentimental romantic silent film, starring Mary Pickford as a poor shopgirl, and her then future husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers, as the secret son and heir to the 5 and 10 Cent Store in which they both work.

It was nice to see Mary playing an adult role for a change, and one feels for the burdens her character has to go through, being the oppressed daughter of such a silly, blundering, selfish family. Buddy's character is a bit tough to take; he's too much of a "pretty boy" through most of the film, romancing the girl under false pretenses, dallying with her affections, but he redeems himself in the end.

The DVD version has a nice symphonic music track (refreshing in comparison to the boring organ scores on so many old Mary films) and this film is tinted, plus it has some darling home movies included from Mary and Buddy's wedding and honeymoon 10 years after the making of the film.

If you enjoy Mary Pickford on film don't forget to plop this one in your DVD player sometime soon. It was her last truly silent film and therefore something special.

This along with Stella Maris are my two most favourite Pickford films. I've seen this film about 4 times as issued by Image Entertainment. The Image Entertainment version has a beautiful and uplifting musical score that matches the movie perfectly.

Mary and Buddy are perfect together and theirs is the romance that all of us wish to have at least once in our lifetime. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry.

I also loved the performances of Lucien Littlefield who plays Mary's father, Sunshine Hart who plays her mother and the fiery and exotic Carmelita Geraghty who plays her jazz-loving, hot-tempered flapper sister.

The ending is funny. We see Mary's rag-tag family ready to make the boat on time where she will be married to her sweetheart.

One of the best and funniest silents ever! Also, check out Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy (1924). That's another funny romantic film too.

"My Best Girl" is the downright American love story, with Mary Pickford (the America's Sweetheart) and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers (the America's Boyfriend) wooing each other on screen in 1927, and ten years after, they were married to each other - a union lasted 42 years for the rest of Pickford's lifetime through 1979. An enviable love story.

The (silent) film is directed by Sam Taylor (who collaborated on many a Harold Lloyd hilarious fun capers). On the DVD case, it has "Script: Hope Loring, with Mary Pickford and Charles "Buddy" Rogers." Charles Rogers, so handsome, young and charming, and quite an athletic runner. Director Taylor included familiar treatment with main characters standing in the stream of traffic, cars swishing by near-miss, not lacking in car chase or chasing after car scenario - but done in a most endearing way, especially the sequence between Pickford's Maggie Johnson riding at the back of a truck, while Rogers' Joe Grant repeatedly trying to catch up with her. Clearly two persons quite smitten with each other - so lovely together without a care in the world.

The DVD restored version (supervised by Keith Lawrence, 1999 Milestone Film & Video) has an outstanding symphonic score by David Michael Frank, performed by the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Zlin (Czechoslovakia), conducted by Bill Motzing. Simply love the music! It is so appealing and perfectly fitting to the fairy tale tempo of "My Best Girl": love at first sight, rags to riches, family strife and love obstacles, humor and dramatics, tears and joy all rolled into one. Mary Pickford is THE quintessential star, queen of the silent film era. She's so good at what she does, romantic comedy or tough drama (as in "Sparrows" 1926), and adept in physical moves, too. The introduction of the Shop Girl in the beginning: the juggling of the pots, that foot in the pan 'gag', the slips a-slipping thing, all delivered with such impeccable timing. Storyline progression played on mistaken assumptions, with timely humor and sweetness of the heart.

Don't let 'silent film' deter you: it's a lively piece, with lots of plot turns and dramatics, and the cast, besides the adorable pairing of Pickford and Rogers, the supporting roles from Pa Johnson and Ma Johnson, sister Liz and sleazy John Junior, down to the sidewalk 'crippled Pencil Peddler' (actually a critical small part in the love story of Maggie and Joe), are engaging as any talking pictures, maybe more so. The "Breaking Joe's Heart" segment - just watching how Mary Pickford played her scenes, running the gamut of emotions, is satisfying by itself.

Everything about this film is quality: the cinematography (the montage composition and angles following the couple, the multiple street scenes - sweet rainy or sad rainy), set design (that crate of a box where Joe and Maggie had their lunch seemed like Paradise till the camera pulled back and revealed wide) and sound (the punctuated cash registry bell, the entry of door bell rings matching pauses in the music) all contributed to "My Best Girl" being a not to be missed cinematic experience. Have a dose of fairy tale now and then. Check out the DVD, relax and enjoy it!

Beautiful romantic comedy starring the great Mary Pickford, alongside her future husband Buddy Rogers. As a silent it is one of the best, a perfect example of the art of silent cinema, and as a film, it transcends all time and languages, the perfect love story.

A spunky stock girl in a large department store falls in love with the handsome son of the owner, who is working there incognito. Their ripening romance is threatened, however, by the antics of their two families.

Wonderfully warm & witty, MY BEST GIRL was Mary Pickford's last silent film. In it she bids farewell to the flickering shadows which made her the world's most famous celebrity. Fortunately, as her silent swan song, it is a very good picture, with excellent production values and equal dollops of comedy & heartbreak. Mary's face, and especially her eyes, express her every mood. This was the face of the shrewd & powerful woman who in a significant measure had created the motion picture industry - and who so soon would be leaving it.

Her co-star is young Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, who would score a huge success this same year of 1927 as the star of the epic WINGS, winner of the first Oscar for Best Picture. Here he displays the charm for which he became famous. Although 12 years younger than Mary in real life, he was a good knight to her lady in distress, protecting & loving her through her final silent film.

The rest of the cast is also very good: Lucian Littlefield as Pickford's tiny, ineffectual father; Sunshine Hart as her massive, emotional mother, a woman whose greatest delight is going to strangers' funerals; and Carmelita Geraghty as her flapper sister. Hobart Bosworth gives dignity to the role of Rogers' father. Comic Mack Swain appears as a harried judge. Movie mavens will recognize Nigel De Brulier in a poignant role as a crippled match seller.

The film has been restored and given an evocative new score. It will delight fans of Pickford & the silent cinema for years to come.

After MY BEST GIRL, Pickford made four talkies and even won an Academy Award, but she retired from the screen in 1933, very wealthy, her legend intact, and involved herself in various good works. Her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks came in 1936 and she married 'Buddy' Rogers in 1937, becoming, in truth, his best girl. For the next 42 years he cared for her, as age and alcohol took their toll on Little Mary. Pickford became increasingly secluded in Pickfair, rarely leaving the upper floors of her fabled mansion in her last years. She did not want her fans to see the old woman she had become. Surprisingly, she did make a TV appearance for a few moments in 1976 when she accepted an Honorary Oscar. Then it was back into the shadows. America's Sweetheart died in May of 1979 at the age of 87.

Never a great movie star, but a very well-loved gentleman, 'Buddy' Rogers involved himself with charities & various humanitarian causes. He died in 1999, at the age of 94.