Movie reviewed: The hoodlum (1919), starring Mary Pickford

Movie reviewed: The hoodlum (1919), starring Mary Pickford

The adventures of a poor little rich girl (five stars)

The America's Sweetheart, Mary Pickford, plays Amy Burke, a spoiled little rich girl growing up in a mansion of her grandfather on Fifth Avenue in New York. Bored to death, she decides to stay with her father, a sociologist, living and studying in the Bowery section of Lower Eastside. She assimilates into the life styles of the poor inhabitants of the district and acts like a hoodlum. Pickford is hilarious when she shoots craps with loaded dice, drives recklessly in a car during a chase from the police, dances a wild tango in an alley, and eventually settles the score between the wronged man (whom she marries) and her grandfather. Another tender side of our heroine also includes a highly benevolent action when she takes a sick mother and her children under her wing, she asks Peter Cooper, her grandfather in disguise living in the tenement to look after the baby only to be rebuffed; later he has a change of heart, and returns to the mansion a changed man.

Mary Pickford was a suave movie-businesswoman who cofounded United Artists studio, and this movie was produced by her Mary Pickford Company. Most notable part of the movie is the film set "the Craigen Street" of Bowery was built for the movie with tenement hallways and stairs, fire escapes, and alleys. The film is directed by Sidney Franklin. I very much enjoyed watching this movie and it is highly recommended.