Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Little Annie Rooney (1925)
To get in the spirit of next month's 31 days of film I decided to start watching some silents. I kicked it all of tonight with a film I've been meaning to see for ages, Little Annie Rooney.
When Mary Pickford's popularity began to wane in the mid 20s she asked the readers of a fan magazine to write and let her know what sort of part the public wanted to see her play. After all, she was a big mogul at United Artists and could make any picture she wanted and thus there was no excuse for failure. Fans responded that the role they most wanted her to play was the feisty little girl character that she had played in the previous decade in such films as Pollyanna and Daddy Long Legs. Her response was to make this film where she plays twelve year old Annie Rooney. Fans apparently didn't care that she was 32 at the time as the film was a big success.
It is 1925 in a New York City slum. The various immigrants have settled together and many form "gangs." Leading one gang of children is Annie Rooney, a feisty tomboyish twelve year old willing to start a huge brick fight over a boy calling her his sweetheart. She lives with her brother and widowed father and secretly crushes on Joy Kelley played by William Haines (7 years her junior by the way.)
There is a little slapstick and physical comedy although most of the humor is subtle and leaves you more with a smile rather than rolling in the aisles. Little Annie Rooney is a rather simple film and for those unaccustomed to silents might seem a little odd. Much of the movie's humor comes from the ethnic stereotypes of the neighborhood's multicultural makeup and many of today's audiences might not see the humor in this and might miss the fact that the neighborhood melting pot seems to coexist despite their differences.
While Little Annie Rooney is an entertaining film it is a little short on plot. The film really doesn't pick up until the last half hour and then it runs at breakneck speed right until the end. The cinematography is typical for silents and there's nothing truly groundbreaking although for those new to silents you might find some of the visual storytelling camera tricks to be a bit unusual by today's standards as they were deemed obsolete when talkies came in.
All in all, Little Annie Rooney is a classic and should certainly be seen by any silent film buff. It's not the best silent out there but if you're looking to move beyond the slapstick comedies you could do a lot worse.
By the way, the director of this film, William Beaudine, later on would direct Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. How cool is that?
When Mary Pickford's popularity began to wane in the mid 20s she asked the readers of a fan magazine to write and let her know what sort of part the public wanted to see her play. After all, she was a big mogul at United Artists and could make any picture she wanted and thus there was no excuse for failure. Fans responded that the role they most wanted her to play was the feisty little girl character that she had played in the previous decade in such films as Pollyanna and Daddy Long Legs. Her response was to make this film where she plays twelve year old Annie Rooney. Fans apparently didn't care that she was 32 at the time as the film was a big success.
It is 1925 in a New York City slum. The various immigrants have settled together and many form "gangs." Leading one gang of children is Annie Rooney, a feisty tomboyish twelve year old willing to start a huge brick fight over a boy calling her his sweetheart. She lives with her brother and widowed father and secretly crushes on Joy Kelley played by William Haines (7 years her junior by the way.)
There is a little slapstick and physical comedy although most of the humor is subtle and leaves you more with a smile rather than rolling in the aisles. Little Annie Rooney is a rather simple film and for those unaccustomed to silents might seem a little odd. Much of the movie's humor comes from the ethnic stereotypes of the neighborhood's multicultural makeup and many of today's audiences might not see the humor in this and might miss the fact that the neighborhood melting pot seems to coexist despite their differences.
While Little Annie Rooney is an entertaining film it is a little short on plot. The film really doesn't pick up until the last half hour and then it runs at breakneck speed right until the end. The cinematography is typical for silents and there's nothing truly groundbreaking although for those new to silents you might find some of the visual storytelling camera tricks to be a bit unusual by today's standards as they were deemed obsolete when talkies came in.
All in all, Little Annie Rooney is a classic and should certainly be seen by any silent film buff. It's not the best silent out there but if you're looking to move beyond the slapstick comedies you could do a lot worse.
By the way, the director of this film, William Beaudine, later on would direct Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. How cool is that?
Labels: Classics, Silent Films
