In MY BEST GIRL, Mary Pickford plays a modern variation on Cinderella. She's a department store shop-girl with a dysfunctional family-- rather than cruel stepsiblings, Pickford has to deal with a chronically ailing father, a melancholy and hapless mother who attends funerals for fun, and a flapper sister attracted to bad boys and louts. All cannot function without her stabilizing presence, which becomes a problem when she strikes up a romance with a new co-worker, played by Buddy Rogers (who would soon become the third Mr. Mary Pickford once his co-star's marriage to Douglas Fairbanks went up in smoke).
This alone would make an appealing comedy, but it turns out Buddy is really the disguised wealthy son of the department store's owner, trying to prove his competence without the aid of his social privileges. His attraction to Pickford is complicated by his own crazy family's hopes that he'll hook up with a suitably rich girl.
Overall, the movie is well-constructed and cute. The comedy lands and the romance is charming, no doubt helped by the off-screen chemistry Pickford and Rogers shared. The movie also gets points for mercilessly spoofing one of my most hated movie tropes, the "break his heart to save him from social disgrace" nonsense. That scene alone is worth its weight in gold for those movie fans who have suffered through that terrible trope way too many times, from CAMILLE to SPIDER-MAN 3.
This alone would make an appealing comedy, but it turns out Buddy is really the disguised wealthy son of the department store's owner, trying to prove his competence without the aid of his social privileges. His attraction to Pickford is complicated by his own crazy family's hopes that he'll hook up with a suitably rich girl.
Overall, the movie is well-constructed and cute. The comedy lands and the romance is charming, no doubt helped by the off-screen chemistry Pickford and Rogers shared. The movie also gets points for mercilessly spoofing one of my most hated movie tropes, the "break his heart to save him from social disgrace" nonsense. That scene alone is worth its weight in gold for those movie fans who have suffered through that terrible trope way too many times, from CAMILLE to SPIDER-MAN 3.