THE DAUGHTER OF DAWN - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Milestone restores important lost film.

Any day is a great day to watch and rejoice in this important "lost" piece of cinema history, but Canada's NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY is a pretty good reason to celebrate the gorgeous Milestone Cinematheque's Blu-Ray of The Daughter of Dawn, an independent 1920 silent picture that stars over 300 members of Oklahoma's Comanche and Kiowa nations.

When it comes to film restoration and preservation,
it doesn't get better than Milestone Film and Video.

The Daughter of Dawn (1920)
Dir. Norbert A. Myles
Starring: Esther LaBarre, Hunting Horse,
White Parker, Jack Sankeydoty, Wanada Parker

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Mysteries abound from the period we know as the dawn of cinema and they almost always centre upon the multitude of films which existed ever-so-fleetingly, then disappeared from the face of the earth due to the vagaries of distribution and exhibition - not to mention the highly combustible nature of nitrate film stock (eventually eschewed after cinema's first fifty-or-so years in favour of more stable stocks). The bottom line is that most major studios considered films as "disposable" product and far too many pictures simply disappeared, going the way of the majestic Dodo Bird - forever.

One of the biggest mysteries is the production of The Daughter of Dawn, which was manufactured by The Texas Film Company in 1920. Shot on location in a wildlife refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma and starring over 300 members of the Kiowa and Comanche Nations, it probably makes even more sense that it became lost to the sands of time given that it was a genuinely independent film, bereft of the usual barnstorming entrepreneurial showmanship oft-applied during those early days.

In fairness to producer Richard Banks, he had enough vision to secure actor/director Norbert A. Myles to write a script based on a Comanche legend and then mount a spectacular production in a tough location, using local Native Americans, not only as actors, but as the primary artisans of the costumes, sets and props. The film's existence was never in question, nor were the obviously prodigious efforts to make it, but given the popularity of similar works of the period (such as the films of Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Robert Flaherty, Edward S. Curtis, et al), why it didn't follow similar footsteps is a major head-scratcher.

As far as we know, The Daughter of Dawn had one public screening at a sneak preview in Los Angeles, followed one year later with a screening in Topeka, Kansas and then, completely falling off the map. Its spotty distribution/exhibition history might be one of the greatest mysteries of all. When one compares its aesthetic attributes to the vast number of ethnographic documentaries, docudramas and straight-up dramas shot on location during this period, with real people in front of the cameras, The Daughter of Dawn easily holds its own against seminal works like Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, Grass: A Nation's Battle For Life and In the Land of the Head Hunters.

The picture is a rip-snorter of the highest order. It's a classic love triangle set against the backdrop of war. Dawn (Esther La Barre) is the daughter of a powerful Kiowa Chief (Hunting Horse) and she's madly in love with the handsome White Eagle (White Parker). Alas, the sly, lumpy, bumbling Black Wolf (Jack Sankeydoty) is in love with Dawn and because he's imbued with considerable wealth (he owns a whole whack of ponies), the Chief is torn over bestowing his daughter to an ideal match. Will it be love that wins out over wealth or vice versa? Neither. The Chief decides that bravery is the greatest attribute, so he sets a challenge to both men to prove their worth.

Simple, yes? Well, there are spanners in the works. Red Wing (Wanada Parker), a not-so-fetching "catch", is madly in love with dopey Black Wolf and her jealousy knows no bounds. Worse yet, some neighbouring Comanches are fixing to go to war with the Kiowa Nation and plan to make a raid in order to steal women and goods. When Black Wolf proves to be no match for the brave White Eagle in the competition, he grabs his "lesser" paramour Red Wing and hightails it over to the Comanche side to turncoat his way into an act of ultimate revenge.

There will be war.

The Daughter of Dawn proves to be a supremely entertaining western adventure. Director Myles trains his camera upon the action with a first-rate eye for staging and detail. We not only get a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Native Americans (thanks mostly to their cultural/artistic contributions), we're treated to nice dollops of romance and some truly spectacular action scenes (including a buffalo hunt, no less).

How and why this movie fell through the cracks is beyond me. Is it possible that neither the film industry nor audiences were ready for a movie about Native Americans taking centre stage? (A cool bit of historical trivia is that actors White Parker and Wanada Parker were the children of leading Comanche leader Quanah Parker.) Well, whatever kept this film from finding its true place at the time, the point is now moot, because now is the time.

Extraordinarily, though the film was long lost, an Oklahoma private detective was paid for his services with a few cans of nitrate film stock which, as it turned out, was the only extant print of The Daughter of Dawn. It eventually found its was into the hands of the Oklahoma Historical Society who commissioned an all-new original musical score by noted Comanche composer David Yeagley and eventually, for all of us who love movies, it was happily placed in the hands of the visionary Milestone Film and Video who have made it available to the world - ninety years after it was first made.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ***** 5-Stars

The Daughter of Dawn is available on a sumptuous Blu-Ray/DVD via Milestone Film and Video on their Milestone Cinematheque label. It looks gorgeous, of course, thanks to a beautiful 35mm restoration and 2K transfer and the home entertainment package is replete with an informative introduction by Dr. Bob Blackburn, the featurette "Finding the Film: with Bill Moore of Oklahoma Historical Society", interviews with Comanche Darren Twohatchet, Kiowa Dorothy Whitehorse, William D. Welge of The Oklahoma Historical Society and featurettes on the musical score.

THE KID - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Charlie Chaplin's immortal tear-wrencher on Criterion

JACKIE COOGAN is THE KID (1921)

The Kid (1921)
Dir. Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Tom Wilson, Carl Miller

Review By Greg Klymkiw

When a poverty-stricken unwed mother (Edna Purviance) is spurned by the father (Carl Miller) of her newborn baby, she decides, in desperation, to abandon the child so it will have a chance at a better life. She doesn't place it on any old doorstep, however, but finds a fancy car in front of a huge mansion. She places her babe in swaddling clothes gently in the backseat and forces herself to leave before she changes her mind. 

Unfortunately, she does change her mind, but her timing couldn't be worse. Upon her return, she discovers that the car's been stolen by two thugs. Upon discovering the baby, they abandon it in the streets, smack dab in the middle of a slum.

Who then happens upon the child?

Who else?

A funny-looking little tramp (Charlie Chaplin). Yup, this kid is going to have a very interesting life. If you're abandoned in a slum, there's probably no better surrogate Dad to bring you up and teach you the ways of the dirty, mean streets.

And so begins The Kid.

It's such a terrific picture, I have three fervent proclamations:

1. If The Kid doesn't have you squirting Old Faithful-style geysers of tears from thine ocular orbs, releasing Niagara Falls-like streams of mucous via your nasal cavities and most importantly, weeping (in the parlance of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now) "like some grandmother", I hereby charge that you are not human.

2. If The Kid doesn't have you howling with laughter until you bruise your knees from slapping them so hard, shred your throat until it's raw and bleeding from your mirth-filled shrieks and coming close to soiling yourself with heavier matter "down below", I furthermore charge that you have no sense of humour.

3. If you are a parent and have not yet screened The Kid for your children, you deserve to be reported to a Child Welfare Agency in your jurisdiction.

Charlie Chaplin's The Kid is that great. It's also technically his first feature length film and by 1921 when it was first released, it was, at 53-minutes, his longest film. Prior to this he'd made innumerable one-reelers and two reelers for companies like Keystone, Essanay, Mutual and First National but needing more creative control, the ability to financially back his own work and generate even wider releases, he joined forces with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in 1919 and created the distribution company United Artists.

Lots of laughs, tears of sadness, tears of joy,
All of it, sublime

The Kid was his first film for United Artists and it proved to be a major box-office success. It's not surprising why. Chaplin pulled out all the stops on this one by tackling such issues as the place of women in society, child poverty and homelessness, but he did it with humour, sentiment and considerable aplomb, crafting a film that hit things the "everyman" could relate to, but wrapping it up in a bow that could provide hope that the impossible could happen, that dreams beyond one's wildest dreams could, in fact, come true.

Offering people hope is certainly not the worst thing an artist can do and with The Kid, Chaplin doled it out like some philanthropic madman serving free ice cream to poor kids in the slums.

However, before we (and the characters) get to experience hope, Chaplin puts us through a major ringer. There are, of course, plenty of laughs as the tramp and cute-as-a-button 5-year-old (Jackie Coogan) pull a variety of scams, always barely escaping the watchful eye of a beat cop (Tom Wilson). The funniest of these scams has the kid hurling rocks through windows and the tramp conveniently showing up as a repairman to fix them up.

But then, we get the tears.

Illness, orphanages and overall heartbreak follow. How can it not? This is Chaplin, after all. As a baby, the kid was wrenched from his mother, and now, as a little boy, he is wrenched from the surrogate Dad who loves him.

Chaplin creates a cruel and unfair world that the poor and disenfranchised are forced to live in. Chances are good that he drew considerable inspiration from his own childhood and, as it always did, these personal elements add considerably to this film (and so many others). His filmmaking mastery is already prevalent in this early work and whether he generates either humour or sadness, the result is sublime.

And yes, there is also hope. That might be the most sublime element of all.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ***** 5-Stars

The Kid is one of the best Criterion Collection Blu-Rays in years. It features a new 4K digital restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s 1972 rerelease version of the film, featuring an original score by Chaplin, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray; a new audio commentary featuring Chaplin historian Charles Maland; Jackie Coogan: The First Child Star, a new video essay by Chaplin historian Lisa Haven; A Study in Undercranking, a new program featuring silent-film specialist Ben Model; interviews with Coogan and actor Lita Grey Chaplin; excerpted audio interviews with cinematographer Rollie Totheroh and film distributor Mo Rothman; deleted scenes and titles from the original 1921 version of The Kid; “Charlie” on the Ocean, a 1921 newsreel documenting Chaplin’s first return trip to Europe; footage of Chaplin conducting his score for The Kid; Nice and Friendly, a 1922 silent short featuring Chaplin and Coogan, presented with a new score by composer Timothy Brock, a whack of trailers; and an essay by film scholar Tom Gunning.

MASTER OF THE HOUSE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Decades ahead of its time, the silent Carl Th. Dreyer masterpiece of comedy deservedly receives the lavish Criterion Collection treatment.

Thank God for the Criterion Collection. I first caught up with this Carl Th. Dreyer masterpiece on 35mm during a Toronto International Film Festival Cinematheque screening a few years ago and have been dreaming ever since that I'd be able to see it again. The dream is now reality. Master of the House, the huge hit comedy by the delectably dreary Dane is here for all to enjoy on a magnificent Dual Format (Blu-Ray and DVD) package from The Criterion Collection. Now I can see it again and again. So too, can you.

Viktor (Johannes Mayer) and Ida (Astrid Holm)
A man's home is his castle. A man's wife, his slave.

Stunning new Criterion cover design
by Béatrice Coron

Master of the House (1925) *****
Dir. Carl Th. Dreyer
Starring: Johannes Mayer, Astrid Holm,
Mathilde Nielsen, Clara Schønfeld, Johannes Nielsen

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Carl Th. Dreyer was always ahead of his time. His greatness and importance to the art of cinema is inestimable. In terms of theme, he was probably one of the few filmmakers to consistently tackle the exploitation of women under the thumb of patriarchy. Though many of these same films from 1928 onwards also blended his concerns with the spirit and the flesh, nobody, but nobody during this period came close to capturing the harrowing worlds of women who would dare to have their own thoughts and desires. He managed to out-Ibsen Ibsen. In terms of style, he told stories using a myriad of original groundbreaking methods that paved the way for all the cinema that followed him. For much of his post Master of the House career, Dreyer's unique stories and approaches seldom found favour with either the movie-going public and/or financiers. From 1928 to 1964 he made only six features, one of which he disowned and had withdrawn. and sadly, he died before making his last proposed film, Jesus.

Master of the House was a huge box-office success in 1925. In terms of actual admissions to cinemas, it easily toppled many subsequent hits in the modern age where grosses purport to mean something. His followup picture in 1926, the delightfully titled The Bride of Glomdal, a romantic comedy with dashes of Griffith-style action in its climax also collected healthy admissions at the ticket wickets. In fact, many of Dreyer's silent pictures found favour with audiences. His 1920 The Parson's Widow served up - even by today's standards - the daring tale of a young parson forced into marrying a frumpy crone some fifty years older than he, but manages to sneak his young true love under the roof as his sister. (Days of Heaven, anyone? Albeit with a much happier ending than Malick afforded us.) Leaves From Satan's Book from 1921 follows Satan throughout history as he attempts to convert and rebuff followers for the mercy of his own soul. Michael from 1924 (!!!) is one of the first major works of gay-themed cinema and features a homosexual relationship between an older man and young lad as well as a subplot involving unrequited gay love. Dreyer constantly pushed the narrative envelopes and in terms of camera work, experimented with leisurely, austere shots and rich, exquisitely composed frames cut with considerable urgency.

And then came The Passion of Joan of Arc in 1928, the hugely expensive period costume drama that defied every known filmmaking tradition to man - its perverse angles, the rapid-fire cutting, the insane number of shots, the breaking of the axis to convey a beleaguered POV and most of all, the closeups. There was, up to this point, nobody like Dreyer in terms of capturing the landscape of the human face and the orbs of the eyes as pools one could use to dive into the souls of his characters. The Passion of Joan of Arc went beyond anything Dreyer had done, though building on less than a decade of astonishing experimentation. This is a film that to this day cannot be touched for its sheer audacious invention. In 2010, the curators of the Toronto International Film Festival proclaimed it to be the most influential film of all time.

Yet in 1928, it flopped. Big time. So much so that every subsequent work became harder and harder to finance.

Master of the House, then, is the perfect Dreyer picture to be made more widely available in this day and age when cinema is becoming more and more predictable and less inventive than ever before, a day and age when grosses mean everything and yet, mean nothing when one does the real math and realizes that average ticket prices are now in the $15 range as opposed to the $0.15 average in Dreyer's heyday. And allow me to reiterate, Master of the House was a HUGE HIT! In terms of intelligence and sophistication, though, it blows most everything made today out of the water. In terms of cinematic daring, it makes state of the art digital effects little more than circus sideshow sleights of hand.

Master of the House is mature to the max, but in 1925 it had the ability to appeal to everybody. I daresay it could even do so today. Like the best romantic or even screwball comedy, Dreyer's film, based upon a popular play entitled Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife by Sven Rindom, has a very simple tale on its surface. Viktor (Johannes Mayer) and Ida (Astrid Holm) live with their three children in a comfortable, though small flat. They are obviously well off enough to keep Mads (Mathilde Nielsen) a nanny/housekeeper in their employ. And sure enough, Ida's Mom (Clara Schønfeld) is extremely well-to-do, but as Viktor is the master of the house, it is he who must provide. Unfortunately, his role as a breadwinner seems to give him the right to treat Ida like a slave. The first half of the film doesn't even play out as a comedy. His treatment of Ida is dismissive, nasty and abusive. It gets to a point where she's becoming deathly ill and zapped of all spirit. Mads and Ida's Mom concoct a secret plan. They steal Ida away when Viktor is not home. She stays with her Mother and under a Doctor's (Johannes Nielsen) orders, Viktor must not see her until she's well again - if ever!

And here, the comedy does indeed roll in with the force of a tsunami. Viktor, once the Master of the House, is reduced to a slave by the wily Mads. He must now learn how much work it is to be a homemaker and realize just how horrid he's been to Ida. For her part, Ida is so on-the-mend that being away from her brutish husband is having quite the emancipating effect upon her.

Watching Viktor get his comeuppance is truly hilarious, but Dreyer takes us deeper than the mere skin of the narrative and we're deftly dealt several hands that expose a variety of layers to the lives of the men and women of the bourgeoisie.

And above all, in spite of everything, love exists between these two people, but the tale paints several pictures that illustrate just how both of their lives have been turned topsy-turvy by the mores and demands of society and how the roles of men and women in a patriarchal world so easily become entrenched in horrendous master-slave relationships. This is a couple who once worked together and then, even more surprisingly, the one thing that truly defines Viktor as a man in the world has, it seems, been snatched away from him and his ego, fuelled more by societal pressure is what drives him to compensate for his loss and become a monster.

Dreyer, ultimately looks to tell a tale of redemption, but to get there, the suffering is as real, painful and yes, funny and there are no guarantees that anything is going to work out the way any of the characters would want it to.

Not only is the story layered with all manner of psychological and political complexity, but the manner in which Dreyer shoots the film is utterly extraordinary. Most of the film takes place in one room, yet never do we feel claustrophobic until Dreyer wants us to through the POV of his characters. His shots are gems, gorgeously composed and always rooted in character and/or dramatic action. He values the "proscenium" and creates movement within it via extremely sophisticated blocking and a superlative use of the sets, props and overall reality of the space.

This is the kind of comedy most of us yearn for, but alas, in this day and age it's been replaced with sledgehammers and/or misplaced story elements that can never get the mix between comedy and tragedy just right and certainly never as well as this brilliant Dane did - a man who created one of the biggest box-office romantic/screwball comedy hits (albeit of the Danish variety) some 90 (!!!) years ago. And guess what? He did it with grace, intelligence and invention.

See for yourself. I think you'll be shocked.

Master of the House is available via the Criterion Collection in a dual format box with both Blu-Ray and DVD, both formats lovingly mastered and transferred. Béatrice Coron's gorgeous cover art houses an exquisite package that includes an all new 2K digital restoration, with a reconstructed score by composer Gillian B. Anderson, expertly performed by pianist Sara Davis Buechner and presented in uncompressed stereo. There's a new interview with Carl Theodor Dreyer historian Casper Tybjerg, a decent visual essay on Dreyer’s innovations by film historian David Bordwell, new English inter title translation and in the accompanying booklet, an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu.

BABY PEGGY: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Exploitation of silent child star Baby Peggy and her life after fame on this great disc from the visionary Milestone Films on their Milestone Cinematheque Label. Exquisite package includes the doc, plus very cool extras!

Milestone Films Cinematheque presents
one of the year's finest DVD releases

Baby Peggy was 19 months old in 1920 and became one of the world's most beloved movie stars, headlining over 150 shorts. In 1924 she was signed to a $1,000,000 contract for starring in the feature Captain January. She was also huge in vaudeville, performing all day, everyday in continuous live performances. By the late 1930s, her fortune had been squandered by her father and she disappeared for decades. She's still alive. Now in her 90s, Baby Peggy's real name is Diana Serra Cary. She continues to lead a full life as an author and advocate devoted to making the world aware of the exploitation of children in show business. This is her story.

Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room (2013) ****
Dir. Vera Iwerebor
Starring: Baby Peggy (Diana Serra Cary)

RATING FOR ENTIRE DVD PACKAGE: *****

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Imagine spending an entire childhood feeling like your career as a movie star (and sole breadwinner) was over before the age of ten. Even worse, though, would be feeling like an elephant in the room, the weight of your "failure" tied to your neck in a family life fraught with strict patriarchal discipline, domestic disputes, itinerancy and poverty.

This was Baby Peggy's story. To watch her in the few films of hers that still exist (3 shorts and her classic feature Captain January, lovingly restored and available on this DVD as - I kid you not - extras) is to see a kid with immense talent whom the camera loved with considerable passion.

It's no wonder she became so huge.

That's why, however, there's a considerable melancholy to this tale, so simply and beautifully told in Iwerebor's documentary. Effectively using film clips, archival materials and, of course, interviews with the still alive-and-kicking 90+ year-old Baby Peggy, we get a wonderful sense of the sweep of her tale, but also the deeply dark aspects of it. She eventually "became" Diana Serra Cary, and it's both fascinating and somewhat astounding that she's in her 90s. She's as fit and fiddle as someone three decades her junior and her recollections of those early days seem picture-perfect vivid. It's no surprise she's a writer - she paints with words.

Most poignant ARE her memories of childhood and tellingly, we get a sense of what a sharp cookie she was as a kid. She always looked upon her Baby Peggy persona as a screen character and played it as such. On her own, she felt like herself and always viewed her roles - which ultimately were not diverse, but basically "her(other)self" in film after film. The most harrowing experiences she recounts were the vaudeville days. Her father sold her on the basis of her stardom, to be sure, but he also sold her to theatre proprietors on the basis of being a child star who could play continuous shows from early in the day to late at night. This was not only abuse, but amounted to child slavery.

At the same time, her Dad was a rodeo cowboy and occasional stuntman and she shared his love of horses. When it looked like she was "washed up" as a child, he bought a ranch and for a time, she was happy.

Until, of course, her father mismanaged the finances (during the Great Depression no less) and she in watched in sorrow as every piece of the ranch was sold in an auction.

The family tried their fortunes in Hollywood again. Alas, Peggy and her Mom, got work as extras, but Peggy herself did not experience the same kind of adolescent/adult revival as some other stars experienced.

Years later, stardom and Hollywood well behind her, Cary/Peggy became an advocate for the rights of child stars, a historian and also wrote a number of books including "Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era" and "Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star" about the lives and histories of similarly exploited kids in the business (as well as a memoir of her own experience "Whatever Happened To Baby Peggy").

No doubt, in homage to her own father, she also wrote a superb book that I've personally read and love entitled "The Hollywood Posse: The Story of a Gallant Band of Horsemen Who Made Movie History".

Now she lives quietly in semi-retirement, but as more and more of her films are discovered and restored, she is frequently honoured at screenings and gets scads of personally addressed fan mail from kids of "all ages". And now you can see this great film about her life and a nice sampling of her films. This is really a lovely little documentary and hats off once again to Milestone Films for adding to the history and heritage of cinema by making this whole package available on one of the finest DVD releases of this (or frankly, any recent year).

"Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room" is available on DVD from Milestone Films and distributed by Oscilloscope.

In USA and the rest of the WORLD - BUY Baby Peggy The Elephant in the Room - HERE!

In Canada - BUY Baby Peggy The Elephant in the Room HERE, eh!

In UK BUY Baby Peggy The Elephant in the Room HERE

MARY PICKFORD: RAGS & RICHES COLLECTION - THE POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL, THE HOODLUM, SPARROWS - Review By Julia Klymkiw - Cub Reporter - 12-year-old Cub Reporter reviews the exquisite Milestone Film and Video Special Edition, Extras-Packed Blu-Ray which presents "Kid-Friendly" Silent Films Starring Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford: Rags & Riches Collection - Milestone Film and Video
The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) *****
Dir. Maurice Tourneur 
The Hoodlum (1919) Dir. Sidney Franklin *****
Sparrows (1926) Dir. William Beaudine **********

Review By Julia Klymkiw
(The Film Corner's 12-year-old Cub Reporter)

Mary Pickford was a really big movie star from Canada who made movies almost 100 years ago. She played the roles of kids a lot even though she was not a kid, but because she was petite and had really cute curly hair, she could do these roles very well. She was as popular as stars we know from today like Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts and Jessica Chastain, but I will tell you that she was very different from so many of the big stars we all know because she made silent movies before they had sound in them.

I love Mary Pickford and I think many girls like me will love her if their Moms and Dads let them see the movies on this Blu-Ray. She is someone who is so good that she always makes you laugh, but sometimes her stories can be sad too.

The Poor Little Rich Girl is so good because she plays a little girl whose Mom and Dad are very rich and they are afraid to let her go outside of the house. She just wants to be like other kids, but her parents are too busy for her. They love her and aren't really mean to her, but she sure wishes she could go out and play. Her nanny is mean though and Mary has to be pretty crafty at finding ways to sneak outside to play. Her Mom and Dad are angry and upset when they find out. She gets into some really bad trouble and needs to get out of it all by herself.

The Hoodlum is sort of like The Poor Little Rich Girl because in this movie, Mary lives with her grandfather and he is always too busy for her. This makes her very lonely. They move to a poor area of the city because her grandfather is a scientist who is studying poor people. He lets her be a real girl, but only because he is so busy. It's nice because she gets to meet her real Dad who is poor. When she goes to play with the poor kids in the neighbourhood they don't like her at first, but as she gets to know them better, they really begin to like her because she is a lot of fun and they always get into trouble. It's not bad trouble, but fun trouble. This movie is really exciting and made me laugh a lot. Mary not only gets to be like real kids, she gets to be like some of the poor kids and she gets to learn a lot about how other kids live.

Sparrows is so good that I gave it 10 stars. [Ed.note: Try arguing with a 12-year-old sometime.]

This movie has funny things in it, but it's not like the other two movies at all. This story is sad and scary. Mary plays a little girl who lives in an orphanage where a family of super bad people are very mean to all the kids. They buy kids and sell kids and this is not something orphanages should do, but in the old days this probably happened a lot. Even today it can happen, but only in countries like Russia and Ukraine.

In this movie, Mary is a bit older than the other kids and because she's a teenager, she always has to try to save them from the really horrible man who is the father of the family. He's not very nice. Well, that is being polite about it, because he is so evil. He makes the kids work really hard, he doesn't care when they are sick, he feeds them horrible food that is not nutritious and in such small amounts that Mary needs to sometimes steal extra food from the kitchen. The orphanage is completely surrounded by a swamp and I do not want to spoil the movie for you, but there are some horrible things in that swamp that want to eat kids.

This is a really great silent movie and I have to say it might be my favourite silent movie of all time. There are times when it is so sad you want to cry, but Mary is such a great hero that you always hope things are going to get better for all the poor orphans. Mary might be a kid, but she is almost like a real mother to the kids.

You really can't ever stop watching the movie. It's that good. Sometimes you laugh and other times it is so exciting and full of suspense that you almost can't bear it. And when the movie is scary, watch out! It's that scary!!!!!!

I think this is an amazing movie for all kids of today to watch. You see how people were very poor in those days, but even though it is from a long time ago, it is interesting to watch because you start to think about how poor people are today and that even today, there are a lot of kids who are treated badly. You hope that in real life there are characters like Mary plays and yes, there are brave people who help kids, but I think we probably need more of them.

Many movies and TV shows for kids have girls who are the main characters, but many of them only care about silly things. In Sparrows, Mary plays a little girl who is so brave, smart and caring. I wish more modern movies had actors like Mary Pickford who could play characters like the one Mary plays here.

Even though I think Sparrows is the best silent movie I have seen, I think the movie is so good that it is probably one of my favourite movies ever that's silent or sound. If you have not seen it, you need to.

This is such a good Bluray and I think all parents have to get it for their kids because they will learn a lot about how movies used to be so different, but were just as good as they are now. Even if the movies of Mary Pickfor are silent, they are not really silent. They always have great music and even the black and white has colour in it because in the old days they used to put colours on scenes in the labs. There is only one colour in the scene that goes on top of the black and white, but it is kind of cool because the colour is used to make you feel if the scene is happy, sad, sunny, cloudy or dark. My Dad explained that to me a long time ago when we watched other silent movies.

There are also a bunch of extra things on the Bluray that kids will enjoy because it explains and shows you how to watch silent movies. I do not mean to brag, but I did not really need this stuff because I have been watching silent movies ever since I started watching movies, but for kids who do not have a Dad who tells them all the stuff they need to know about movies then this is totally perfect. I enjoyed the little documentary things the Bluray plays before each movie starts and even though I knew most of the stuff I find it interesting to see how much stuff other kids don't know about it and how they should. The thing that's really cool is the extra sound on the movies that has the titles read out loud to you and gives you all kinds of cool information. This was good even for me because I didn't need to bug my Dad when I did have questions. He never minds when I ask him questions, though. ;-)

In USA and the rest of the WORLD - BUY Mary Pickford Rags and Riches Collection - HERE!

In Canada - BUY Mary Pickford Rags and Riches Collection HERE, eh!

In UK BUY Mary Pickford Rags & Riches Collection HERE

PART II of GREG KLYMKIW'S GUIDE: How to raise your child with the highest degree of cinema literacy!

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PART ONE YET, CLICK HERE

In this edition of "How To Make Your Child Cinema Literate" you'll see why and how classic product (like that of Walt Disney), will instil a high degree of cinema literacy within your child, thus arming the happy toddler with the supreme taste it'll require to take out every inferior child within the sphere of its peers. For example, Disney's immortal SONG OF THE SOUTH, is difficult to acquire nowadays because it's been unfairly treated with pariah-like status by narrow-minded politically correct fascists. They myopically refuse to acknowledge that children learn so much more about the history of our world (AND art) when they're presented with unexpurgated and CONSTANT exposure to materials that display the highest degrees of aesthetic excellence, yet often represent perspectives which. in contemporary society are indeed no longer acceptable. The bottom line, dearest reader, is that your child will not become a lemming if YOU aren't a lemming yourself. So read on, learn and apply with fortitude and no shame.

PART II

How To Make Your Child Cinema Literate

Commentary and Guide by Greg Klymkiw

If you don't want your child to become a Philistine, herewith as promised is PART TWO of the handy-dandy Klymkiw Film Corner treatise on coaching select parents and their even more select children to ensure the utmost level of cinema literacy in one's progeny. I realize that most of you can't cut the mustard, and though I bear you no ill will or malice, it's important to avoid eventual heartache and just give up now if you're one of those miserable cretins who are beneath those who have the ability to positively take from this advice and make the most of their children's futures. For you who are, indeed of a superior persuasion, you're in the right place. Here you'll find tips, tricks and some viewing suggestions that allowed MY own child to choose the ideal fork in the road.

And maybe, just maybe, yours too.

In the parlance of Michael Haneke: ROTFLMFAO!

SILENT, 2-strip & 3-strip TECHNICOLOR and B&W - ONLY

1. Pre-birth and Toddler Years

Before your child is even born, there are two important things you must do. First of all, place the mother of the child in front of your home entertainment system and screen all the acceptable motion pictures - repeatedly if need be, since this will also be beneficial to the carrier of your seed. If possible, the Mother's belly should be as close to the monitor as possible. This might not work for those who use wall-mounted monitors and/or massive pull-down screens, but do your best. (A well-placed ladder could work wonders here.)

Secondly, prepare viewing lists for the first 2-to-3 years of the child's life. For home viewing, nothing on my list went beyond the release date of the mid-1960s and most were well before that date. Keep in mind that the list must be used as strictly as possible, but I do allow some leeway if the list is used as a springboard to show the child contemporary work inspired by the directors in question.

If, for example, you're going through a period where you're screening an abundance of Warner Brothers gangster films, I'd be delighted to hear that you also screened some select Martin Scorsese pictures for your toddler - notably Mean Streets and Goodfellas. My own child was especially enamoured with the latter title, so I screened it for her repeatedly, BUT made sure to ALWAYS sprinkle said screenings with palate-cleansers like White Heat, The Roaring Twenties, City For Conquest, Scarface (the Howard Hawks version, obviously) and The Public Enemy.

After screening THE PUBLIC ENEMY, it was especially delightful seeing the child at age 2, slicing a variety of citrus fruits and attempting, like Mr. Cagney, pictured above, to grind them into the face of her mother. You, like I, MUST gently chastise the child by saying, "Now, now, your Mommy isn't Mae Clarke."

At the end of the day, though, I always made sure that a good many of the films were silent and if they were "talkies", I favoured  those that were shot in monochrome (black and white for those of the uninitiated persuasion).

John Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY is a GREAT movie to show your children as early in their lives as you possibly can (and then repeat viewings every 6 months or so until they begin choosing it themselves as a movie to watch repeatedly). It's also a wonderful film to discuss composition, lighting and overall mise-en-scene with your kids since it might well be one of the most gorgeously photographed B&W movies ever made. Its cinematographer was the immortal 7-time Oscar nominee and 3-time Oscar winner Arthur Charles Miller.

The only colour films on this list (save for contemporary exceptions noted above) are choice classics photographed in original two-or-three-strip Technicolor.

David O. Selznick's GONE WITH THE WIND is a perfect movie to begin showing your child as early as possible. It's replete with one shot after another that will allow you to examine and explain to your child why real Technicolor was and still is better than any other colour film stock, but that sadly, this process was abandoned many years ago.

NEVER discriminate with respect to genre - musicals, drama, comedy, horror, western, romance, documentary, neorealism - all are fine so long as they stay within the aforementioned parameters. Remain true to your lists with only minor variants that are mere springboards from whatever is on them.

RABBIT EARS ONLY

2. Broadcast Television in Moderation

If you must have broadcast television available, do NOT under any circumstance allow cable television in the home. Use rabbit ears ONLY and make sure you set the channel changer to only carry programming like Teletubbies. When the child is asleep, I highly recommend you fire up a dubie and view Teletubbies all by your lonesome - alone, mind you - no need to corrupt your child. Other people's miserable children will do a good job in the corruption department. (A constant challenge to the bearer of superior parenting skills.)

TELETUBBIES 4 ALL!!!

There really are only two acceptable broadcast choices:

(A.) TVO (educational TV in Ontario - if your province does not have educational TV, you lose and if you're American, PBS is not much of a substitute for the excellence and superiority of Canadian public EDUCATIONAL television, but it will have to do I'm afraid and if you're one of my ridiculously huge number of readers in Europe, I know most of you DO have excellent public broadcasting of all kinds).

A JUBILEE OF CBC

(B.) CBC (in Canada, this is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, our national public television network - however, since my dear cousin Slawko Klymkiw stopped being the Head of Programming after he got an un-requested ass-fucking for the top-job, the programming became shittier and shittier due to - ahem - "visionaries" - so it's much harder these days, save for some exceptions, to recommend this option, and for my American readers, you're pretty much fucked and my European readers, you already know the score, so go for it).

SIR NATURE BOY TO YOU!

Programming choices in Canada for the aforementioned can ONLY be early morning Children's programming, documentaries (preferably "nature" docs - others are fine, but kids fucking LOVE animals, go figure) and extremely select dramatic shows. Programming choices for Americans are nil, though PBS will do if you narrow the choices to nature and select British mystery series. And, uh, you Europeans can pretty much let anything play in your home that's on your publicly owned networks.

3. What movies can your nippers see

In movie theatres, take them to everything and anything (except contemporary Disney, though selective Pixar titles are fine). Screw babysitters. Children's admission prices are free up until two years old (but if you shove a baby bottle in the child's mouth and caution them to NEVER talk, you can stretch the freebies out until they're four years of age). Also, never buy anything at the cinema, just sneak in your own beverages and munchies and if you're really smart, it's not impossible to scope out free or reasonable parking. The myth of how much it could cost you to go to the movies is just that - a myth. 

Censorship is, of course, verboten.

That said, toddlers and pre-teens might be better off if you chose not to screen the following titles: 

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
Probably NOT a Good Idea 2 Show 2 Kids #1

SALO: THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
Probably NOT a Good Idea 2 Show 2 Kids #2

NEKROMANTIK
Probably NOT a Good Idea 2 Show 2 Kids #3

THE LION KING
Probably NOT a Good Idea 2 Show 2 Kids #4

4. Animation: To show or not to show?

Animation poses a special challenge since the bad stuff is REALLY awful, yet all little nippers love cartoons - they really, really do and most importantly you cannot leave animation out if your goal is to boost their cinema literacy. Well, don't fret. That's why I'm here, folks.

The following animation is acceptable for your child:

Anything by the Fleischer Brothers - includes Popeye, Betty Boop and their many one-offs, the Somewhere in Dreamland-styled Talkartoons

Anything by Jan Švankmajer

Anything by the Brothers Quay

Anything by Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli

Any Anime & Manga, but skip pictures involving demons with 20-foot-long penises chasing after pre-teen girls. Anime has tons of violent sexual imagery, so you might wish to pass on anything featuring rape. (For live-action drama - Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange are obvious exceptions to this rule. They're movies all kids must see!)