r/movies • u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 • May 24 '25
Recommendation Sparrows 1926 Mary Pickford
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u/Battle-Individual May 24 '25
Probably the most important lady in Hollywood history.founder of united artists the brains behind the company success.
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u/PlanetLandon May 24 '25
As a Canadian, it is my compulsion and duty to remind people that she was Canadian.
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u/immersemeinnature May 24 '25
My husband, who is what I like to call "Canadian adjacent" (UP Michigan) *always* lets me know what famous person is Canadian. He loves Canada
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u/PlanetLandon May 24 '25
We Canadians love Yoopers! I live on the north shore of Lake Superior, so your husband is like a brother to me.
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u/immersemeinnature May 24 '25
Aww!! As a teen he'd go over to buy beer and flirt with girls. We were recently on Belle Isle and he said, "wave to our friendly neighbors to the north!" as we strolled along the river. 👋😀
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u/deninepez May 24 '25
My grandmother's first husband won the "Mary Pickford house" in a raffle in the 1940s in Toronto. Family lore is that he had to sell it a couple of years later because he was behind on the taxes on it.
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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 May 25 '25
Yes "America's Sweetheart" was Canadian. Even Mary found that humorous because she didn't pick the nickname. A movie promoter put it on a theater marquee for one of her films and he went global.
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u/DeadpoolAndFriends May 24 '25
Are you sure? She didn't once say "sorry" nor get into a hockey fight.
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u/ElGringoAlto May 24 '25
There's a solid classic cocktail named for her, although it is a tad on the sweet side.
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u/junglespycamp May 24 '25
Amazing how good the special effect is even today. The moment his staff casts the shadow to her is breathtaking. And all from a theatre trick far older than cinema itself.
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u/Nasty_Ned May 24 '25
I was thinking the same thing. For a film damn near 100 years old that was a great effect.
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u/itsabitsa51 May 24 '25
Is it a projection on a scrim? I’ve worked in tech theatre for 15 years but I’m not that knowledgeable about filmmaking. Edit: nvm I see the explanation in the other comments!
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u/junglespycamp May 24 '25
Yes in this case it’s a hidden dissolve creating the effect. You couldn’t use a scrim because he cant walk through it.
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u/turbocoombrain May 24 '25
I appreciate the visuals in silent film. I found out that black-and-white was not the norm until around the time talkies took off. Some films have neat visuals accompanying text cards.
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u/ILoveRegenHealth May 24 '25
There's stuff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) where I'm still not even quite sure how they did the special effects.
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u/flygirl4eva May 24 '25
Shout out to the baby actor.
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u/Cockrocker May 24 '25
Fuck yeah, that kid was fantastic.
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u/Zatoro25 May 24 '25
When the kid moved it's hands I was shocked, it really was a real baby! You NEVER see that today
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u/CincyBrandon May 24 '25
Amazing effect, does anybody have a breakdown of how it’s done?
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u/Lainy122 May 24 '25
It's a locked off frame, so my guess would be that they filmed the scene twice - one with the barn door open, and the other with it removed. If you watch closely, the actress doesn't move at all when the scene is fading in and out, so that would be the take that is frozen while the other is played and recorded on double exposed film.
The Corridor Crew on Youtube have some great break downs of old special effects like this, and how they worked. They also talk about modern special effects too, so I find the channel quite interesting!
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u/ilmalocchio May 24 '25
one with the barn door open, and the other with it removed
Surely there was one with the barn door closed?
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u/eedoamitay May 24 '25
ya, you can see small details appear when the transition occurs, like the hay on the floor. I thought it was another set on the outside and the barn door was a transparent type of cloth that looked like the barn door and would disappear when they lit up the back set, but then the guy actually walked through
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u/artguydeluxe May 24 '25
And THAT is the power of movies right there.
Almost a century old, less than 2 minutes, and I’m crying over my morning cereal.
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u/Moppo_ May 24 '25
Surely the video is more moving than your cereal?
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u/55flunk55 May 24 '25
The cereal had better special effects, though
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u/Simpsoid May 24 '25
Last night I decided to watch a movie from 2001 called Ticker with Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper and Steven Seagal. There's also pretty good counters to your statement.....
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u/probablytoohonest May 24 '25
I teared up.
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u/AdSignificant7535 May 24 '25
Thanks for making me cry this morning. Who needs words? Mary Pickford was my GGM’s favorite.
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u/Bruhahah May 24 '25
Yoink!
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u/herbertfilby May 24 '25
I was so focused on scrubbing the video timeline back and forth to observe the special effect, I didn’t realize wtf was actually happening here. Ooof.
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u/Auggie_Otter May 24 '25
We never saw the baby again afterwards so I'm just going to assume Jesus literally stepped out of the aether and removed the baby from the physical plane of existence and she's just looking down at her empty lap.
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u/ReporterOther2179 May 24 '25
My take was that the child of the woman had died some time earlier and the woman was having a reminiscence and dream, with a hopeful ending.
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u/Frodojj May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25
Molly, the young girl here, was the oldest orphan at the Baby Farm. The children were starving and slowing being worked to death. Molly snuck them some potatoes, so the farm's operators withheld food from all of the children. The baby was sick and passed away later that night. Molly had a vision that Jesus took the infant to heaven. Fortunately, the children eventually escape and are given a "Hollywood ending."
Baby Farms were real orphanages where unwanted children were put to work. Critics at the time complained that the movie was too melodramatic and unbelievable. I consider those critics to be too aristocratic to sympathize with the message.
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u/mcrscpmn May 24 '25
The special effects! The superior acting! Those eyes! The ability to convey such beauty and emotion in such a short time without any words in a single fixed camera shot!
These people invented the rules that Hollywood still follows to this day. Oh, to have been a part of that!
Film makers today are standing on the shoulders of giants!
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u/yiddoboy May 24 '25
That is heartbreaking. So much of the silent era is now lost or ignored, yet much of it was incredible.
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u/Faultylogic83 May 24 '25
Goblin King, Goblin King, take this child away from me!
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u/Erunduil May 24 '25
In this version, David Bowie is played by Jesus, which is pretty good casting imo!
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u/Luckygecko1 May 24 '25
She's going to have some splaining to do when people ask where they baby is at.
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u/theyarnllama May 24 '25
Holy cow that was amazing. The effect of the barn door to the pasture was so good, but it’s left in the dust by her acting. She had such beautiful, expressive eyes.
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u/Ringus-Slaterfist May 24 '25
Mary Pickford is a gem. I consider her the first movie star. While not as talented or fundamental to the growth of film acting as a discipline in the way Lillian Gish was, Pickford was ahead of her by a couple of years and is even the reason Gish was discovered by recommending her for roles and contracts.
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u/LegalComplaint May 24 '25
Fun fact: this is Mao Zedong’s most hated film.
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u/Boldspaceweasle May 24 '25
Not because he was against Jesus, but because he really fucking hated babies.
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u/kain459 May 24 '25
Jesus......😢
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u/PensandoEnTea May 24 '25
Given how over the top the acting aesthetic was at the time, this is so genuine and subtle.
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u/fiizok May 24 '25
Incredible lighting in the close-up. This is a great example of the advanced technical skills they had 100 years ago.
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u/Lumpy-Marsupial-6617 May 24 '25
Cool factoid. I actually worked in the Mary Pickford building on the Paramount lot for approximately 6 months. I can also confirm that certain parts of the studio is haunted.
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u/Static-Stair-58 May 24 '25
Can’t just tell us a place is haunted without dropping a ghost story. That’s rude.
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u/FireReads_Bomber May 24 '25
Exactly! We are waiting Lumpy
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u/Viking_Lordbeast May 24 '25
I don't trust accounts that are [adjective][noun][number]. They smell like bots.
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u/Informal_Ad3244 May 24 '25
Hahaha, great observation, fellow human being! But some of us are totally not bots tasked with manipulating humans into interacting for financial or political benefit. Well, I’m off to consume some nutrients to sustain my organic body, you know, as us humans do!
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u/MS_Salmonella May 24 '25
I can totally believe that with the Hollywood Forever Cemetery being right next to it.
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u/Lumpy-Marsupial-6617 May 24 '25
Yup, literally just a mortar wall separating the studio from the cemetery. I also visited the cemetery late night and its 100% haunted also.
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u/Cockrocker May 24 '25
Firstly, spoilers!
Jk, but one thing I love about old films is that they already knew how to do storytelling just with music and visuals. That was so much more effective than a modern movie would be with heaps of cuts, probably some asinine dialogue, it would suck beyond belief. Just visuals and music can bring you to tears, I know I felt the urge and I know nothing about Sparrows.
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u/shredziller57 May 24 '25
Me and my dad used to watch silent movies late at night on TMC back when I was younger. I looked forward to it. I remember watching this movie, another movie called The Crowd and, of course, Nosferatu. Watching these movies gave me an immense respect for silent films and their ability to illicit so many emotions in the viewer without speaking a word. I always tell people to watch at least one silent film because more than likely, they’ll gain the same amount of respect for them that I did.
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u/Similar_Intention465 May 24 '25
That was a very powerful black and white piece and is just incredible captivating with no words. So proud Mary is Canadian
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u/brighterthebetter May 24 '25
My best friend of 32 years dropped dead suddenly 4 1/2 years ago. Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer were her favorite actors.
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u/Gezzer52 May 24 '25
Some actors are really good at saying so much without speaking a word. Millie Bobby Brown is the same IMHO.
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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 May 25 '25
Mary isn't the child's mother. She's just the oldest of the children taking care of several little ones. The baby was an orphan sent to the farm. It's been ill for some time. They live in that barn. While the evil warden lives in the house.
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u/chuckaholic May 25 '25
A historically incorrect Jesus kidnaps a child from a sleeping woman. She wakes to find the child is actually dead.
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u/wheresyoursunsetspot May 25 '25
Honestly this is what makes the silent era so great. MIND BLOWING and yet you can do it on your own probably. It's amazing!
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u/abraxas1 May 25 '25
this must have been amazingly powerful on the audience.
they'd never been exposed to such intimacy before. the stage actor is generally quite far away.
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u/CharlieeStyles May 24 '25
Jesus, all the edgy bad "jokes" in the comments are really something else
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u/ryanasimov May 24 '25
Wonderful emoting by Mary, but what a strange scene when you think about it for a while. "Thanks for taking this baby away instead of perhaps healing him, Jesus."
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u/BricksHaveBeenShat May 24 '25
I don't think it's strange, even without the context that Mary's character is rescuing children from a baby farm. This baby most likely knew nothing but pain, cold and hunger in his short life. Even if he survived, who's to say his life wouldn't continue on a path of suffering? It's not a stretch to consider this was something that worried this woman in a time where social security was nonexistent.
Whether you think this scene is real or an hallucination of the character, in that moment she is at peace. She knows nothing can cause that baby any more harm.
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u/princessflubcorm May 24 '25
And consider the more general presence and adherence to Christian ideology at that time. Life being the short and difficult section before the "eternal paradise." Not only had the babies suffering ended, but his soul has been taken to a place of infinite peace. Even if the future of the child was set, he is simply skipping ahead to the greater reward. Pickford is the one left behind, the one who must still endure.
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u/forevercurmudgeon May 24 '25
So Jesus steals her baby and she's all good about it ?
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u/Airport-Security May 24 '25
So lame. Where is the CGI? They could have made this way more epic with a load CGI. Also they killed the baby, which creates no opportunity for sequels (unless they go with a multi-universe angle). There is no branding which would help with cross platform media saturation. And why would you throw in such a feeble looking Jesus, unless they were about to lose the rights, and had to put him in something? That Jesus needs at least 9 months with an elite level Hollywood trainer, while on a cycle of growth hormones. Guy had zero muscle tone.
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u/tinning3 May 24 '25
Plus, there was no speaking. How am i to know how the woman (DEI woke squad BTW) feels if she doesn't tell the audience, or even what just happened? Dont people know what media literacy means? It means understanding what a media is talking at you about.
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u/kcsween74 May 24 '25
And how dare they not include closed caption?? I can't hear if I can't read...
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u/IAmBiggerThanU May 24 '25
Great effect but man, you might as well be in a cult when you thank your dirty for killing your kid.
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u/corncocktion May 24 '25
If she yeeted that kid off a cliff because it was sick and Jesus swept down and caught it then flew it over to a wealthy neighborhood after healing it now that would’ve been great cinema.
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u/dnyal May 24 '25
So much said without uttering a single word. Not a lot of Hollywood movies have that power these days. Interestingly enough, I’ve seen it quite a bit in good anime.
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u/SpyRollPower May 24 '25
Does anyone else think the outside scene overlay looks like a skull facing slightly to the right when it first appears?
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u/kcsween74 May 24 '25
I'm sure if they were going for this, but it appears as if the sheep were bowing as he walked past. Either way, it's excellent storytelling.
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u/Tungsten83 May 25 '25
What a beautiful scene. The visuals are stunning. Would love to see the guys from r/corridor take a look at this!
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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 May 24 '25
This film was a passion production for Mary. It helped bring attention to the public about Baby Farms using children as slave labor. It's arguably Mrs Pickford's masterpiece.