This short silent feature, "Little Mary Sunshine", is mostly an exercise in photographing a cute child being cute. Its highpoint is when the little girl interacts with and competes in cuteness with a trained bear, first in a humorous episode with the bear drinking water from a hose and, second, in the girl's dream where she offers the bear milk and a bath. (Clearly, there were laxer standards of child safety back then.) Otherwise, nothing of much interest happens, resulting in an essentially forgettable picture.
In the first part, there are parallel stories, which at first appear to be unconnected, but which will later become intertwined. Additionally, we're fed a dull teetotaler message after the male lead loses his fiancée after he gets drunk and after little Mary's drunkard father terrorizes his family. Technically, "Little Mary Sunshine" is unimpressive and probably somewhat below average; some of the editing seems especially choppy, although the print isn't in great shape. Some abrupt cuts were probably original, though, such as the one that leaves us only to assume that Mary's father struck her mother, but which we never see. A couple actors even look directly in the camera's direction, probably receiving direction--briefly but noticeably--another indication that this film was produced by a small company and by a then-inexperienced director Henry King.
By the way, as of this writing, the child star here, "Baby" Marie Osborne is one of the few to still survive from the early silent era and has recently turned 98. "Little Mary Sunshine" seems to be her only silent film available and to have also survived to today. In his "Silent Films" guide, Robert Klepper relates that in 1998, thanks to film preservationists, Osborne saw this picture after not having seen any of her silent films since the silent era.
EDIT: Marie Osborne Yeats died 11 November 2010 - a few days after her 99th birthday.
In the first part, there are parallel stories, which at first appear to be unconnected, but which will later become intertwined. Additionally, we're fed a dull teetotaler message after the male lead loses his fiancée after he gets drunk and after little Mary's drunkard father terrorizes his family. Technically, "Little Mary Sunshine" is unimpressive and probably somewhat below average; some of the editing seems especially choppy, although the print isn't in great shape. Some abrupt cuts were probably original, though, such as the one that leaves us only to assume that Mary's father struck her mother, but which we never see. A couple actors even look directly in the camera's direction, probably receiving direction--briefly but noticeably--another indication that this film was produced by a small company and by a then-inexperienced director Henry King.
By the way, as of this writing, the child star here, "Baby" Marie Osborne is one of the few to still survive from the early silent era and has recently turned 98. "Little Mary Sunshine" seems to be her only silent film available and to have also survived to today. In his "Silent Films" guide, Robert Klepper relates that in 1998, thanks to film preservationists, Osborne saw this picture after not having seen any of her silent films since the silent era.
EDIT: Marie Osborne Yeats died 11 November 2010 - a few days after her 99th birthday.
