Mary Pickford is a middle-caste Indian girl -- her father is a swordsmith. When British army officer David Powell is kind to her, she develops a yen for him. However, the locals rise up and matters grow very complicated.
Pickford is charming as a hard-nosed young woman who drives a hard bargain and isn't above filching food or a bolt of cloth. Powell is there to play the conventional upright love interest and certainly does so adequately. He was an accomplished actor, having come out of Beerbohm-Tree's company. His death at 41 in 1926 is a shame.
Mostly, though, this movie is another chance for Little Mary to play an exotic creature in an exotic land, as her vehicles in this period would have her, and she does so very nicely. The India in this movie directed by John Emerson is a place of caste and hatred and temples and sacred pools and cows, all of which are carefully explained in the titles. Most of the comic bits occur in the final third in the movie, when she has wound up in England.
What survives is a nice movie, although the last reel was missing from the print I saw. Rumor claims there is a complete 35 mm. print. It is undoubtedly on the Pickford Foundation's To Do list, although I expect that with the casual racism and hatred between Hindu and Muslim in Indian, it's nowhere near the top. Still, someday.
Pickford is charming as a hard-nosed young woman who drives a hard bargain and isn't above filching food or a bolt of cloth. Powell is there to play the conventional upright love interest and certainly does so adequately. He was an accomplished actor, having come out of Beerbohm-Tree's company. His death at 41 in 1926 is a shame.
Mostly, though, this movie is another chance for Little Mary to play an exotic creature in an exotic land, as her vehicles in this period would have her, and she does so very nicely. The India in this movie directed by John Emerson is a place of caste and hatred and temples and sacred pools and cows, all of which are carefully explained in the titles. Most of the comic bits occur in the final third in the movie, when she has wound up in England.
What survives is a nice movie, although the last reel was missing from the print I saw. Rumor claims there is a complete 35 mm. print. It is undoubtedly on the Pickford Foundation's To Do list, although I expect that with the casual racism and hatred between Hindu and Muslim in Indian, it's nowhere near the top. Still, someday.