Directed: Sam Taylor

Year: 1929

Nominated: Best Actress – Mary Pickford

Won: Best Actress – Mary Pickford

Plot in 25 Words: Bland film about an incorrigible flirt who finds love against her father’s wishes. Her father prevents their marriage in a most deadly and suicidal fashion.

In My Opinion: I was very glad at how short this film was. It was incredibly bland and dull, right up to the last ten or so minutes.

Mary Pickford won the Oscar for playing a seemingly dim-witted flirt. she has no respect for herself and commands none from others, her own brother and father all but calling her a slut. This was before she was introduced and I felt a little bad for her. Then in her first scene with Matt Moore as Stan Wentworth, I lost any and all sympathy for the character.

I really struggled to watch this film. There were no character to root for, no hero. The basic premise seems to be flirty girl has sex, and then lies about her participation to save her name!.

Hmm. This is a brief review. It was a brief film.

Star Performer: William Janney as Jimmy Besant. He was every stereotype I’d ever imagined about young men in the 1920s. Very chipper, trying to convince his father he’s old enough to smoke more than one cigarette a day while still unable to drink coffee properly. The conversation between himself and John St Polis (playing his father) about safe sex was delightfully awkward.

Lookalikes: Johnny Mack Brown as Henry Ian Cusick

Overall: I’m struggling to understand how Mary Pickford won the Oscar. Such a forgettable performance in a forgettable film.