Sparrows

Pickford in all her sentimental glory. Even in the dust and the muck her presence shines thru.

Must be a very good example of a primitive, emotional, wholesome, women-weepie silent. A Dickens/Grimm cross breed. Ok.

Oliver Twist reloaded.

The swamp setting is creepy and gloomy and the 'bad guys' are suitably creepy and evil. Mary Pickford was pretty awful though and I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. The escape was pretty cool, it's not as exciting today as it would've been then, but it uses the swamp to its advantage and the effects are pretty good. Some development on the protagonist side and less religious references would've helped. It moved a little slow and was a little cheesy.

It had a lot of potential, and there's a lot of things that work really well. The swamp scenes were really effective, and that dream sequence...holy shit. But I think what it really could have benefited from is losing 15-20 minutes. It moves too slow, and the ending's a bit hokey. If it went with more moments like the opening scenes, or the dream sequence, it would be a whole lot better overall. As it stands it's good, but lacking.

The only part that I liked was the ending, aside from that I was rather uninterested and indifferent. Pickford actually left no impression on me whatsoever. Neither good nor bad, which is kind of a rare thing in a lead actor for me. Oh, and I wanted to punch that curly haired toddler the entire movie.

Hokey as heck and the strange way it goes back and forth from harsh realism to cheesy levity is a bit off-putting, not to mention the ridiculous ending. Yet even with all these things it's a very gripping Dickensian story with strong performances from von Seyffertitz and Pickford. Fun to watch, but lacks the depth it clearly craves.