VCI Entertainment in partnership with the Mary Pickford Foundation have released their second collaborative effort. The first was Pickford's Gothic masterpiece SPARROWS which dates from 1926. JOHANNA ENLISTS is from 8 years earlier and was made to capitalize on America's entry into World War I. Pickford was 25 at the time and was already identified with the series of "Little Mary" roles that came to define her career. The success of POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL and A LITTLE PRINCESS the year before had typecast her in the role of a young child or tween. Barely 5 feet tall and with her head of long curly hair, it was easy for Mary to play these parts but it later became a curse when that was all the public wanted to see her as. The 1912 D. W. Griffith directed Biograph short A BEAST AT BAY, which is included as a bonus, gives us the chance to see Pickford playing her real life age of 20.
By the time JOHANNA ENLISTS was made in 1918, Mary Pickford was the highest paid woman in America and the second highest paid movie star after Charlie Chaplin. She had her own movie studio and had complete creative control over her films which were released through Paramount. It was a year later, in an effort to eliminate the middleman and to maximize the earnings from her movies, that she and fellow artists Griifith, Chaplin, and her future husband Douglas Fairbanks banded together to form the appropriately named United Artists which gave them complete control over every aspect of their productions. UA's founding also helped to pave the way for several smaller independent companies as United Artists would release their movies which the major studios wouldn't touch.
JOHANNA ENLISTS is another coming-of-age story for Pickford. It takes place in rural America, a setting that Mary would later utilize in HEART O' THE HILLS (1919). As the movie opens, Mary's character is stuck in a dreary existence of endless chores on her family's farm. She daydreams of a better life which incurs the wrath of her mother as it causes Johanna to mess things up on more than one occasion. This all changes when an army division sets up camp in a nearby field to train soldiers to fight in World War I. Johanna quickly develops crushes on two of the soldiers (one of them an officer) who treat her as someone special while exposing her to knowledge of the world outside the farm. They both fall in love with Johanna and end up fighting over her. When the dust finally settles, she is made an honorary member of the battalion and then winds up with a third soldier.
While the movie is not one of Mary's best, this restoration definitely is considering that around 10 minutes of Reel 3 is missing. Production stills are used to fill in the gap and then the movie picks up where it left off. The rest of the footage is in excellent shape thanks to preservation from the Library of Congress and restoration by the Mary Pickford Foundation. VCI Entertainment continues their fine work in preserving mostly public domain films. Now if only VCI and the Mary Pickford Foundation could release a restored version of the original 1929 TAMING OF THE SHREW with Mary and Douglas Fairbanks (instead of the dreadful "improved" 1960s version), then that would be a real cause for celebration...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.
By the time JOHANNA ENLISTS was made in 1918, Mary Pickford was the highest paid woman in America and the second highest paid movie star after Charlie Chaplin. She had her own movie studio and had complete creative control over her films which were released through Paramount. It was a year later, in an effort to eliminate the middleman and to maximize the earnings from her movies, that she and fellow artists Griifith, Chaplin, and her future husband Douglas Fairbanks banded together to form the appropriately named United Artists which gave them complete control over every aspect of their productions. UA's founding also helped to pave the way for several smaller independent companies as United Artists would release their movies which the major studios wouldn't touch.
JOHANNA ENLISTS is another coming-of-age story for Pickford. It takes place in rural America, a setting that Mary would later utilize in HEART O' THE HILLS (1919). As the movie opens, Mary's character is stuck in a dreary existence of endless chores on her family's farm. She daydreams of a better life which incurs the wrath of her mother as it causes Johanna to mess things up on more than one occasion. This all changes when an army division sets up camp in a nearby field to train soldiers to fight in World War I. Johanna quickly develops crushes on two of the soldiers (one of them an officer) who treat her as someone special while exposing her to knowledge of the world outside the farm. They both fall in love with Johanna and end up fighting over her. When the dust finally settles, she is made an honorary member of the battalion and then winds up with a third soldier.
While the movie is not one of Mary's best, this restoration definitely is considering that around 10 minutes of Reel 3 is missing. Production stills are used to fill in the gap and then the movie picks up where it left off. The rest of the footage is in excellent shape thanks to preservation from the Library of Congress and restoration by the Mary Pickford Foundation. VCI Entertainment continues their fine work in preserving mostly public domain films. Now if only VCI and the Mary Pickford Foundation could release a restored version of the original 1929 TAMING OF THE SHREW with Mary and Douglas Fairbanks (instead of the dreadful "improved" 1960s version), then that would be a real cause for celebration...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.