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Sparrows (1926) by William Beaudine. Sparrows is a 1926 American silent drama film about a young woman who rescues a baby from kidnappers. The film, which was originally titled Scraps, starred and was produced by Mary Pickford, who was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time. [ 2 ][ 3 ]
Sparrows is equal parts Gothic thriller and sentimental melodrama. Set in a swamp in the Deep South, it's the story of a "baby farm" whose evil overseer keeps the children in squalor. Spunky Mary protects and ultimately saves the children from his evil clutches.
Three of the finest cinematographers in silent film (Karl Struss, Charles Rosher, and Hal Mohr) worked on Pickford's Sparrows but it is the set of the enormous farm (created on the back lot of United Artists by Harry Oliver), the special effects in the film, and the performances of the Grimes' family (the aforementioned Gustav von Seyffertitz, his wife (Charlotte Mineau), and her bully of a ...
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- Mary Pickford
- William Beaudine
- William Beaudine
The subject is gloomy, and some of the horrors recall Dickens, yet the darkness is shot through with many laughs. Indeed, so heavily does the hand of melodrama smite "Sparrows" that the picture passes beyond the bounds of credibility. Thus the spectator relaxes, content to give way to his amazement at Mary's skill.
Sparrows is a 1926 American silent drama film about a young woman who rescues a baby from kidnappers. The film, which was originally titled Scraps , starred and was produced by Mary Pickford , who was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time.
Jan 17, 2024 · The second and final collaboration with director William Beaudine from 1925’s Little Annie Rooney which sadly ended with Beaudine storming off the set leaving an uncredited Tom McNamara to finish the picture, the classic melodrama was instrumental in bringing about an end to the baby farm epidemic involving unwanted or orphaned children being trafficked illegally for slave labor or to be ...
"Sparrows" is much better than it seems to have any right to be. Sentimental melodrama with awkward comedic interludes, heavy-handed Christian proselytizing with a simplistic dichotomy between good and evil, and a 33-going-on-34-years-old star playing a Victorian ideal of a child-woman.
