Product Description

Pickford's finest romantic comedy.--Village Voice. Maggie (Mary Pickford), a shop girl in a five-and-dime store, falls in love with the owner's son Joe (Charles "Buddy" Rogers), who is working incognito as a clerk to prove himself to his father. A timeless Cinderella tale set in the roaring twenties, "My Best Girl" is one of Hollywood's greatest romantic comedies. Also included is newsreel footage of the marriage of Buddy Rogers and Mary Pickford, as well as home movies of their life together.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47213 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 1999-10-26
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Silent, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.com
In My Best Girl, Mary Pickford demonstrates the winsome charm that won her the title "America's Sweetheart." She plays Maggie Johnson, a sensible stockroom girl at Merrill's, a five-and-ten-cent store. This is the heyday of the big five-and-dimes and Robert Merrill (Hobart Bosworth), the store's wealthy owner, is clearly a stand-in for F.W. Woolworth. The opening shot of Maggie displays Pickford's prodigious gift for physical comedy. She stumbles onto the selling floor laden with pots and pans, kicking them out of her way and wearing them like shoes. Then, when a salesgirl takes a break, Maggie is given the chance to be a salesgirl herself for a fateful few moments.

Maggie's first and only customer is the owner's son, Joe Merrill, (fresh-faced and sunny Charles "Buddy" Rogers). Maggie has no clue of the young man's pedigree, as he is slumming as "Joe Grant." His father has insisted that he work his way up as a humble store clerk without benefit of his famous name. The chemistry between Joe and Maggie is instantly apparent. Maggie takes him down to the stockroom, where he's helpless with the simplest tasks. "You know, you're awfully dumb," she tells him. But thanks to her patient training, he's eventually promoted to the position of her boss. (It's an appealing role reversal of the principals in the "Pygmalion"/"My Fair Lady" tale.) In the meantime, of course, they fall in love.

The moment when Maggie realizes Joe's true identity is stunning. She runs back to her humble family on "Goat Hill": fumbling father, (Lucien Littlefield), lachrymose mother (Sunshine Hart), and reprobate sister (Carmelita Geraghty). Is Maggie and Joe's love affair doomed? Or will they sail away to paradise together? Only those who see My Best Girl can learn the answers to these burning questions. --Laura Mirsky

Customer Reviews

The Most Charming Silent I've seen Yet!
I'm just sobbing like a baby!

My husband just surprised me for my birthday with 'My Best Girl'. I have been building my silent movie collection for almost 2 years, and not one actress has ever moved me so much as Mary Pickford!

I adore her in every film I've seen thus far, and all the others are DEFINITELY worth buying--bad prints or no, but this...this film is now my favorite Pickford film and in my Top 10 for all silents.

I am not a sappy girl, nor do I fall for romance-type films, but 'My Best Girl' is SO winsome, and SO charming! Please go off and read at least one Pickford biography and then rewatch 'My Best Girl'. I was so skeptical, b/c I'm not a big girly movie fan, but this is one you HAVE to own if you love Pickford! Her leading man in the film is Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, the man she married 10 years after this film was made. At the time, her idyllic marriage to Douglas Fairbanks was just beginning to falter. They divorced in 1935, and two years later, she became Mrs. Buddy Rogers. Buddy is so smitten (in a tastefully restrained way) in every scene, in real life, and it's so lovely to watch him falling nutty-head-over-heels for Mary. It's anyone's guess if Mary felt the same--a tribute to her gifts as an actress--but it was pure bliss trying to guess if she had been!

Funny, smart and BEAUTIFULLY shot (if you've seen a lot of silents, you can tell that this one was made toward the end of the era. You're in for SUCH a treat--the shots are nothing like any in other silents of the same age.) I laughed out loud, and shed big ol' 'I'm not a girly movie fan' tears!

Treat yourself, and buy the Milestone copy. An excellent, clean print, with wonderful sharpness and great picture quality. The few and far between muddy spots go away SO quickly. And the score is so thoughtful, and complements the action and the period impeccably. Buy it up, and send a message to the Pickford Foundation that we want more of these DVDs QUICK!

There are a few home movies & newsreel clips from the Pickford Foundation collection included on the MILESTONE DVD, and watching them just tickled me to no end. All of them were private reels of Mary and Buddy at their wedding, their honeymoon, and later. Again, being not a terribly romantic girl, I sure surprised the heck outta myself by sobbing out loud after reading that "Buddy was always fond of saying that he'd married his 'best girl.'"

A sap I was not, until now!

Pickford's best film
There are those films that I would recommend to people who like that genre (EG "for those who like silent films, they would like this one"), but on a rare occasion I will recommend one to anyone.

Mary Pickford plays the archetype of her former Little Mary roles. She is Maggie, a stock girl at a fictional five-and-dime store... if you read Amazon's review you know the basic plot, which probably isn't the most original. Here's why you should see it:

Unlike too many of her vehicular films, Mary Pickford isn't the only reason to see "My Best Girl." About every character is a delight to see, and Maggie's parents deliver some of the best laughs, although Pickford holds her own at some very funny moments. Try not to smile at the scene when she first appears. The goofy melodrama with Liz and her beaux could make another feature comedy by itself, but here it adds to the richness of the film. The blase look on Millicent's face when Joe runs off to find Maggie is priceless. For that matter, so is the subtle look on Maggie's face after she tells Joe about the "Dramatic club" her sister belongs to. The soundtrack undermines some of the comedy at times, but that's no reason to turn the volume off. You'll find yourself humming the catchy jazz theme that plays when Nick Powell is present.

So, "for those who like silent films," this is one of the most harmlessly enjoyable, and for those who don't -- well, this is one you should see. It might change your mind.

Charming and delightful!
This movie will charm your socks off, and keep you smiling and entertained throughout. No deep film criticism here...this is simply as good and as fun as movies get. If you liked City Lights, you love this one!