User Reviews

This is truly a wonderful silent film. Mary Pickford and "Buddy" Rogers do a wonderful job of conveying two people madly in love with each other that are at times afraid to reveal their true selves. I found myself questioning whether Maggie (Pickford) should fall for Buddy or not. The film aptly depicts socio-economic class distinctions in America and the inequity between them. You find yourself wondering whether two people can find themselves in love despite these inequities. It is a very Shakespearean theme and is quite enjoyable.

On the negative side, the movie did not rate a perfect ten for me because it did not leave me shaken at the ending. I always feel like weeping in Rudy at his father's pride as Rudy runs on to the field. Similarly, I feel shaken when Jimmy Stewart reads the message from Clarence at the end of It's A Wonderful Life. However, My Best Girl did not leave me shaken like the truly great films do. It is very wonderful and charming, but I would not categorize it as a ten. The movie was very touching, but I did not feel like my life had been changed at the end like I do when I watch those other films. I give it an eight.

Charming, romantic, comical and beautiful are the best words to describe My Best Girl, Mary Pickford's delightful last silent film. Mary's choice to return to a lovely, simple and straightforward story, produced a most heartwarming film. The humour revolves around her rather kooky family, a constant source of embarrassment for the young shop girl who is in love with a stock boy, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, who unknown to Mary is really the son of the owner of the store, and very wealthy. The young man is already engaged to a high society girl chosen by his mother, but it is the genuinely honest and unspoiled shop girl he falls in love with. This story excels so well because it does not mire down in sappy melodrama, provides the perfect balance of comedy, and satisfies with a very pleasing ending. It is the relationship between Mary and Buddy's characters that keeps your interest growing, hoping for the happy ending the story provides. Pickford chose Rogers herself to play the leading man and he is superb in the role. The chemistry between the two is magnetic, endearing and believable. With top-notch cinematography, directing and acting, My Best Girl is a winning success, a silent film that still easily delivers pure enjoyment.

The motion picture world was quickly changing - sound had reared it's ugly head and the kind of movies Mary Pickford made had suddenly become passe. She met the modern times and tastes halfway by putting up her curls to play 20 year old Maggie, "the million dollar baby from a five and ten cents store" and for the very first time she had the kind of boy meets girl love story that most of the movie going public were clamouring to see. Her leading man, Charles "Buddy" Rogers soon became the new man in her life, although when asked by her at his audition who was his favourite actress he replied "Norma Shearer" and years later he said Mary still kidded him about it.

To gain experience for her role as a salesgirl, she worked at a local store and, with horned rimmed glasses and hair pulled into a severe style, she served several customers before she was recognised. Taken from the story by Kathleen Norris (a popular fiction writer of the time), it is the story of Maggie Johnson who works in the basement of Merrill's Five and Ten Cent Store. The first chance she gets to be a real salesgirl, it is in vain for her customer, Joe Grant (Rogers), is only a worker who is starting that day in the store room under Maggie's supervision. Aside from the fact that he is really the boss's son, working his way (under an assumed name) from the bottom up, not to mention the fact that he is secretly engaged to Millicent (Avonne Taylor). That doesn't stop all the girls from the store making him a favourite but Maggie is the one he finds hard to forget. When she invites him home for a "pot luck" supper he walks right into the middle of a huge scene - wild sister Liz (Carmelita Geraghty) claims she wants to live her own life, her boyfriend Nick can't keep their date and then a policeman comes "making enquiries", all in view of Joe who is sitting on the porch. Of course Maggie doesn't realise Joe is the boss's son until - in a gorgeous scene, Joe disregards his mother's birthday celebration at the Mayfair and dares Maggie to come with him to the Merrill's house where they are served a fancy dinner by bemused staff who are given the high sign by Joe not to let on that they know him. Maggie even chides him about his improper use of spoons!! His parents come home and the ruse is over but Maggie finds her troubles only starting when she runs out into the rain. Her parents are frantically searching for her - Liz is in night court and Maggie is desperately needed to speak up for her, Joe follows her and his brawling gets on the front page!!! Of course the usual happens - Mr. Merrill offers her money to leave Joe alone and she goes into a big act (dancing to "Red Hot Mama", putting on lipstick, attempting to smoke) to prove she is a gold digger who has been after Joe's money all along - which, for me, falls completely flat because no one believes her for a moment. It is only when Pa Johnson takes charge - up to this moment they have proved a pretty incompetent family, relying on Maggie for everything, including cooking - that Maggie and Joe can happily sail off to Honolulu for their honeymoon.

There are so many nice "bits of business" - their first kiss in the storage box, when Maggie keeps knocking boxes off the back of the truck so Joe will keep running after her and when she pretends the scene between her family and the police are part of a play they are going to put on.

This was one of her most popular films and masses of movie goers rediscovered their love for "the girl with the curls" but Mary was going through some personal strains and she took a year off - the first vacation she had had since she started in films. As "Buddy" Rogers said "She was sweeter and nicer than any of them".

My Best Girl (1927) is another absolutely delightful essential. Directed with great panache by Sam Taylor who not only handles the producer, Mary Pickford, with great skill and elicits equally wonderful performances from the entire cast, but stages all the action from go to whoa with breath-taking acumen.

I believe a lot of the action was actually filmed in downtown Los Angeles, but it was too risky to film at night so two entire city blocks - complete with streetcars - were reconstructed on the studio's backlot!

It's good to see a movie that repays its enormous expense and is not only a directorial wonderland, but a fully engaging story acted with great charm and - dare I say it? - romance by Mary Pickford and Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and a finely attuned support cast led by Sunshine Hart as the girl's mother and Hobart Bosworth as the lad's dad.

It is an equal delight to see Mack Swain as the crusty judge - without his usual make-up. I always wondered what he really looked like!

This film is available on a superb 10/10 Milestone DVD.

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.