Poor Little Peppina (1916)
Released 2nd March 1916
Jack Pickford and Mary Pickford in Sidney Olcott's Poor Little Peppina (1916)
Poor Little Peppina (1916)
Running Time: 48 minutes, drama, Famous Players-Mary Pickford Co.
Director: Sidney Olcott
Writer: Kate Jordan, Cinematography: Emmett A. Williams
Cast: Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Antonio Maiori, Ernesto Torti, Jack Pickford, Edwin Mordant, Eileen Stewart, Edith Shayne, Cesare Gravina, W. T. Carleton.
In December 1915, for the second-year running, the trade press was awash with rumours about the future of Mary Pickford, Famous Players’ biggest star. 1915 had been a phenomenal year for Pickford: some contemporary reports claimed she was seen by 12 million people around the world every day, and there had been reports of a ‘big feature concern’ offering the diminutive actress $6,000 per week. Adolph Zukor, the head of Famous Players, couldn’t afford to lose Pickford to another studio, and Pickford knew it.
In January 1916, Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players put all the rumours to rest when he announced Pickford would remain with his studio. Pickford’s new agreement would see the formation of the Famous Players-Mary Pickford Company. This new organisation would only make features starring Pickford, in which she would retain a half-interest. Reports didn’t mention salary, but newspapers reported she had earned somewhere near $200,000 in 1915.
Poor Little Peppina was Pickford’s first film to be released following the announcement. It was also her first seven-reel picture, although Paramount only exhibited the film at this length at special pre-release screenings held at the La Salle Theatre in Chicago and the Broadway Theatre in New York. For general release, they showed a five-reel version. It is this five-reel version that exists today.
Pickford was once again to work with Sidney Olcott, with whom she had clashed on the set of Madame Butterfly (1915). Pickford later told Films in Review that Zukor had begged her to work with the Canadian director once more. “We got through Poor Little Peppina all right, but only because I bit my lip and did as I was told. Zukor would pat me on the back and mollify me, but I resolved I would never again work with Olcott.”
Mary Pickford, Edith Shayne and Eugene O'Brien in Sidney Olcott's Poor Little Peppina (1916)
Pickford’s leading man was thirty-five-year-old Eugene O’Brien, a recent arrival on the screen who had been a Broadway star since appearing opposite Ethel Barrymore in Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ in 1911. Her brother Jack also featured among the cast. Often portrayed as a work-shy reveller who rode his famous sister’s coattails, Jack Pickford’s credits suggest otherwise. He racked up an impressive 120 credits in an eleven-year period between 1909 and 1920. He had charm and charisma – but a fatal liking for a dissolute lifestyle. Poor Little Peppina was just one of seven films he made in 1916.
The film was shot in the summer of 1915. Pickford played Lois, an American girl, kidnapped as a toddler by mafia member Soldo (Antonio Maiori), her wealthy parents’ butler, in revenge for their firing him for drinking. Soldo leaves Lois with relatives in a remote village, where she grows up believing her name is Peppina. When she is fifteen, her adoptive parents marry Peppina off to a landowner against her wishes. But with the help of a wealthy American woman and her adoptive brother, Beppo (Jack Pickford), she escapes during the wedding festivities. Dressed as a boy, she stows away aboard a ship bound for America. Aboard ship, she befriends Hugh Carroll (Eugene O’Brien), an assistant District Attorney. In New York, Peppina’s and Soldo’s paths cross once again. He now operates a counterfeiting ring from a saloon he runs with fellow mafioso Villato (Cesare Gravina). Soldo doesn’t recognise Peppina but dupes her into passing fake bills for him. When she is arrested, she once again meets Hugh Carroll of the D.A.’s office.
Olcott made good use of locations and set design to create an impression of Italy while staying close to the New York studio. He also used real Italians for most of the Italian parts, which added to the feeling of authenticity. Some scenes he shot on the New York streets. Through the window of the hat store in which Peppina unwittingly passes a fake note, we can see the bustling city streets. Back then, film crews turned up to film without permission, so streets weren’t closed off and filled with extras as they would be today. They were so adept at filming quickly that they would capture their footage before passers-by realised what was happening. This time, people recognised Pickford. Unable to reach the studio car because of the growing crowd, the actress took refuge in a small grocery store around the corner. There she chatted in a back room with the astounded owners until she could make her escape.
The mansion from where Soldo abducts Lois was Blairsden, a 38-room mansion in Peapack-Gladstone, Somerset County, New Jersey. Visiting the set, Daniel Frohman noted that the occupant, Mrs James Blair, was so unnerved by the ease with which he gained entrance to the grounds, she “at once gave orders that her sleeping quarters were to be made impregnable.”
Mary Pickford in Sidney Olcott's Poor Little Peppina (1916)
Pickford’s golden locks were her most recognisable feature, and she made a great deal out of having her brother cut them off in the scene where she must disguise herself as a boy. She hesitates and protests before accepting that the deed must be done, surely anticipating the gasps of horror the deed would wrench from her fans. Of course, the hacked tresses were false; Pickford kept her real hair tucked under a wig for the scenes in which she is disguised as a boy.
The film’s premiere broke records at its presentation at the Broadway Theatre. The capacity audience reportedly broke into spontaneous and prolonged applause at the close of the screening. Most reviews praised it, remarking on the use of Italian actors and Pickford’s performance. Even when panning the film, they praised the leading actress; the reviewer for the New York Tribune wrote, “[Pickford] brings every ounce of that art for which she is famous, and it must be added that “Poor Little Peppina” needs it. For Kate Jordan has merely rewritten “Cinderella” and called it her own… “Poor Little Peppina” is rather trite, but Mary Pickford manages to make it interesting.”
Poor Little Peppina doesn’t rank among Pickford’s better films, but it shows the actress expanding her repertoire of international characters – although her attempt at portraying an adoptive Italian consists mainly of offering the occasional finger purse. The film feels rushed – probably because of those missing two reels. There’s a lot of plot to cram into the 48-minute running time, which leaves little time for exploring characters that are consequently rendered stereotypical. The brisk pace keeps interest high however, and Pickford, as always, is an enchanting heroine.
Sources: Mary Pickford Rediscovered, Kevin Brownlow; Mary Pickford: America’s Sweetheart, Scott Eyman; Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Booton Herndon, p131-132; Films in Review, Jack Spears, Feb 1962.