User Reviews

We're so used to watching the beginning of movies listing who are the actors during the credits. But it wasn't always that way. Until 1911, film studios hadn't fully recognized the star power influencing viewers habits. They felt the story was the main selling point. Plus they didn't want to pay their performers more money than they could get on the stage where they mainly worked.

By the time Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford proved the public would be more attracted to films they appeared in, the studios decided to "advertise" their appearances by listing their names in the front credits with the title of the film before the story unfolded. One of cinema's first screen credits was IMP Studio's March 1911 film "Sweet Memories. " The beginning credits stated "Mary Pickford America's Sweetheart Sweet Memories." So began a trend that continues today.

Primitive silent from the early years of cinematic story-telling strings together a string of events that are presented as the bittersweet memories of a very old lady. The idea of character development was still a few years off, so our hero and heroine have only the sketchiest of personalities, which makes it kind of hard to care what happens to them..

A simple idea can be very effective when it is done well, and that is exactly what happens here. It shows an older woman looking back at the special moments in her life with her husband and family. They are simple events, but are presented in a thoughtful way, and at times it is quite moving. Mary Pickford, of course, helps a lot in gaining the viewer's sympathy. The title of "Sweet Memories" is quite appropriate for this nice little film, which in a seemingly effortless way draws you into the lives of its characters and makes you care about them. There are many movies that try to achieve this effect, but this one works much better than most of them, despite its apparent simplicity.

Nineteenth century romantic Lottie Pickford (as younger Lettie Terrell) is wooed by dashing King Baggot (as Edward Jackson) in a poetic flashback story triggered by pretty young Mary Pickford (as Polly Biblett) bringing her present day beau to meet approving grandmother Charlotte Smith (as older Lettie Terrell Jackson). Her "Sweet Memories of Yesterday" foreshadow not only happiness for the young couple, but also tragedy…

This Thomas H. Ince short is not imaginatively filmed; its actors walk into camera range, to perform (compare it to what D.W. Griffith was accomplishing at Biograph) - but, it does address an unusual topic artfully, and with what would become a unique configuration of performers. This is the only surviving film to feature the entire Pickford family: mother Charlotte Smith Pickford, daughter Mary Pickford Moore, daughter Lottie Pickford, son Jack Pickford, and son-in-law Owen Moore.

So far, this historic film has not received the restoration it deserves. An excised scene exists; in it, Charlotte Smith and son Jack Pickford appear at the grave of her husband / his father. It may be the film's most striking and significant scene, pointedly illustrating that the "Sweet Memories" of the older woman included the death of her husband, at a relatively early age. Interestingly, this is what occurred in the "real life" Pickford family.

****** Sweet Memories of Yesterday (3/27/11) Thomas H. Ince ~ Charlotte Smith, Lottie Pickford, Mary Pickford