Through the Back Door

Starring:Mary Pickford
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
The life of young Jeanne (Mary Pickford) changes dramatically when her widowed mother marries wealthy New Yorker Elton Reeves. Disdainful of children and jealous of the attention paid to his stepdaughter, Reeves convinces his bride to leave Jeanne in the care of Marie, the Belgian nurse who has helped raise her. Years later the guilt-ridden mother returns for her child. But the elderly nurse, desperate to keep her beloved Jeanne, lies and says that the girl has died in a drowning accident. When World War I breaks out and Belgium comes under attack by the Germans, Marie must send Jeanne to America for the girl's safety. When she arrives at the Reeves' huge estate, the poorly dressed Jeanne fears to approach her mother with the truth and instead ends up taking a job as her maid. But when a team of husband-and-wife con artists (Adolphe Menjou in one of his earliest roles) threatens her mother's marriage, Jeanne must find the courage to reveal everything and come to her aid. Intimately filmed, handsomely directed and with a Chaplinesque approach to the subject matter, Through the Back Door includes one of Pickford's finest moments: Mary invents a new and hilarious method for cleaning a muddy room...she straps scrub brushes to her feet and skates her way across the soapy floor!

Average customer rating:

Sweet Double Feature

Charming disc

Two Ultra Rare Pickfords for the Price of One

Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable!

Through the Back Door
Starring: Mary Pickford
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
Pickford, Mary | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Used DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Heart o' the Hills

Suds

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Tess of the Storm Country

Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley

ASIN: B0007NMKSU
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Description

The life of young Jeanne (Mary Pickford) changes dramatically when her widowed mother marries wealthy New Yorker Elton Reeves. Disdainful of children and jealous of the attention paid to his stepdaughter, Reeves convinces his bride to leave Jeanne in the care of Marie, the Belgian nurse who has helped raise her. Years later the guilt-ridden mother returns for her child. But the elderly nurse, desperate to keep her beloved Jeanne, lies and says that the girl has died in a drowning accident. When World War I breaks out and Belgium comes under attack by the Germans, Marie must send Jeanne to America for the girl's safety. When she arrives at the Reeves' huge estate, the poorly dressed Jeanne fears to approach her mother with the truth and instead ends up taking a job as her maid. But when a team of husband-and-wife con artists (Adolphe Menjou in one of his earliest roles) threatens her mother's marriage, Jeanne must find the courage to reveal everything and come to her aid. Intimately filmed, handsomely directed and with a Chaplinesque approach to the subject matter, Through the Back Door includes one of Pickford's finest moments: Mary invents a new and hilarious method for cleaning a muddy room...she straps scrub brushes to her feet and skates her way across the soapy floor!

Customer Reviews:

Sweet Double Feature.......2006-05-21

Through the Back Door is a very sweet Mary Pickford film from 1921. It begins with a rich family; the mother of a little girl is planning to marry a wealthy man. He does not like the child, so she gives the little girl up to her maid who takes her in as her own. We see the little girl (Mary Pickford) as she gets older, about ten years old, doing all sorts of hilarious and cute things. She gets into trouble, but she has plenty of fun along the way. Later, her mother comes back to claim her, but the poor woman has grown so attached, she claims the little girl has died. Fate brings the two back together again. This is a great little melodrama and a perfect vehicle for Pickford.

1914's Cinderella is included as an extra feature. The way the story is delivered is very antiquated, but it gives it a nostalgic feeling. Mary plays Cinderella and her first husband, Owen Moore, plays the prince. The print is okay although it has a lot of scratches still, and the score is decent outside of the annoying periodic vocals. It is interesting how developed the technology of film was at this point in time; it uses double exposures and dissolves many times. This film is not one to watch constantly since everyone knows the story and it doesn't have anything extra-special to offer, but it is a nice curiosity to supplement the first film.

Charming disc.......2005-11-11

The main attraction on this disc is 1921's 'Through the Back Door,' which follows Jeanne (Mary Pickford) through three parts of her life. First we see her as a small child with her mother, who has a suitor named Elton Reeves. Elton isn't the nicest guy, as he doesn't really want Jeanne around and, after successfully pressuring her mother into taking him as her second husband, makes it clear that they're going to America without Jeanne. Jeanne's mother isn't completely happy about this arrangement, but because she wants to obey her new husband, she leaves Jeanne in the care of her nanny Marie. About 5 years pass, and now Jeanne is quite happy living the life of a simple mischievous farm girl with her adoptive parents Marie and Jacques. Marie is incensed when she gets a letter from Jeanne's mother, saying she and Elton are coming for a visit and finally going to take Jeanne with them to their new home in America. They even have a whole new wardrobe for her to wear. However, since Marie has grown quite attached to the girl and is angry at her mother for leaving her and then never contacting them till now, she sends Jeanne out of the house when she knows the Reeveses will be stopping by. When they are there, she lies that Jeanne drownt in the river and the body was not recovered. However, this isn't the last we hear of Jeanne's mother and stepfather, as about five more years later WWI breaks out, and Marie decides to send Jeanne away from Belgium. She gives her a written confession the local priest witnessed, so she can give it to her mother in America as proof of her identity. On her way to leaving Belgium, Jeanne also adopts two young boys who have just been orphaned, and then they're all off to the Reeves mansion. The Reeveses no longer have the greatest marriage, and due to her duties as a maid, Jeanne's plans to break the news to her mother and to have a happy reunion have to be put on hold until the time seems right. The reality is different from the fantasy, though Jeanne keeps hoping things will turn out right for everyone in the end.

The other film on this disc is the 1914 version of 'Cinderella,' which really begins right in the middle of things (leading one to perhaps feel there might be some early footage missing), not really taking any time to develop characters or what's going on. The print also looks somewhat the worse for wear, and some aspects of it, such as certain costumes, look rather primitive, but to be fair, this is from 1914 after all. One can't expect most movies from 1914 to be in tip-top shape or to look as smooth and polished or to be as perfectly plotted as a film from even 10 or 20 years later. Leaving aside that, it is a pretty charming film, with a great soundtrack, and stars Mary Pickford's first husband, Owen Moore, as her leading man, the role he often filled onscreen in the early Teens.

Both of these films are fun, cute, and charming, and it's great such rare films are finally commercially available after remaining unseen for so long, but overall they're not quite what I would consider absolutely top-notch material.

Two Ultra Rare Pickfords for the Price of One .......2005-09-11

This is one of the "best buys" for Mary Pickford fans on DVD as it has two feature films that are very rare. THROUGH THE BACK DOOR (1921) is one of Mary's least known films from the 1920's but it's an extremely charming film that helped put Mary back in the number one spot at the box office that year. The movie was co-directed by Mary's talented brother Jack Pickford along with Alfred Green.

CINDERELLA (1914) is a title that has long been written about in Pickford articles, it was a very important film in her climb to her throne as the silent screen's greatest star yet it has been seen by almost no one for almost 90 years!! The print quality is a somewhat below average for a Milestone Pickford release (no doubt why it's included as a "bonus" here instead of marketed by itself for that reason) and I think a little work on it could have improved the picture quality somewhat but let's not quibble now that this historical important film has resurfaced. This will be a most welcome addition to your collection of silent films.

Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable!.......2005-05-03

Thanks to Milestone's wonderful efforts to restore many of Mary Pickford's films, a whole new generation is getting to know `America's Sweetheart' and understand why she earned this title. This great DVD has not one but two shining examples of Pickford's delightful acting style which captivated and charmed audiences in the 1910s and 1920s, and together with excellent musical scores, both films are a real pleasure to watch. Although Mary's role is quite typical in "Through the Back Door" as she plays first a 10-year-old and then a 16-year-old girl, the story of this film is particularly good and even quite suspenseful as we follow her adventures and attempts to re-unite with her mother. There are plenty of highlights, both in drama and comedy, as she plays a mischievous little girl on a farm, then as a young woman leaving war-torn Belgium to find her mother in New York. Suspense escalates when she is employed as a maid in her mother's wealthy home, and unsuccessfully attempts to tell her mother who she really is. Like most of Pickford's most popular films, "Through the Back Door" is essentially a heart-warming story about love and human relationships enduring hardships and finding happiness in the end, and while this film is no exception, I still found it particularly enjoyable to watch and rate it as one of my favourite Pickford films.

The second treat on this DVD is one of Mary's earliest feature films, "Cinderella", made in 1914, and although the picture quality is often rather faded and not as good as "Through the Back Door", the exceptionally beautiful musical accompaniment makes up for any visual shortcomings. Furthermore, the sets, characters and not in the least Mary's excellent portrayal of Cinderella also make this one-hour early feature film a delight to watch. The story is what you might expect, complete with very ugly sisters, a huge pumpkin that the fairy godmother turns into a fabulous carriage, and the glass slipper left behind as the clock chimes at midnight. But there are also a few extra scenes and moments that almost make the story feel real and much more than just a child's fairytale. The unusual musical score by Donald Sosin, a silent film composer of high repute, has touches of Baroque and other early music to enhance and add to the magical atmosphere of this lovely old film. "Through the Back Door" also has an excellent orchestral score, and both films together make this DVD rate 5 stars, in my opinion. Definitely a real treat for Pickford fans, and surely a pleasure for the general silent film enthusiast as well.

DVD:

DVD

3 Ninjas: High Noon On Mega Mountain (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Body Chemistry

Arielle, die Meerjungfrau 2: Sehnsucht nach dem Meer