Review of Stella Maris (1918) by Joel A — 15 Jun 2010

Although my second exposure to Mary Pickford... the first being Romance of the Redwoods (1917) directed by the great Cecille b. De Mille but the print was awful and her acting was hard to see, especially her facial expressions cause the negative was so damaged.

However this film was absolutely fantastic, Mary Pickford played both Leads both utterly convincing. To be content with her choice of playing the 'ugly duckling' Unity Blake, a week before production of this film she used to walk around the studio in character and no one recognised her... this gave her the faith the she can pull it off and she did!!!

The film is quite dark indeed, touched on many tough issues of the day, orphans, torture, society, parental neglect, but a powerful melodrama nontheless. An extraordinary achievement for the dubbed American Sweetheart this was incredible stretch of her talent....