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Best Actress: Mary Pickford

It's Mary Pickford's turn in the spotlight!


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America's silent film sweetheart and mogul was the second woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars, for her performance in Coquette (1929), in which she plays a Southern belle whose flirtation with a young man in town has fatal consequences. 

This was Mary Pickford's first sound film, and she went all out transforming her studio to ensure that the filmmakers could capture a cutting-edge performance. After dominating the screen with her baby doll performances, cutting off those era-defining curls and trying a grown up role proved to be enough of a change that it resulted in an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Or, if you believe the inverse: as a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, she used her clout and fame to rig the award in her favour. Is this all but confirmed? Is it outright confirmed? It seems to be the reason why so many write off Mary's performance in Coquette and why I find it at the bottom of nearly ever ranking list I come across. 

Mary won against the likes of Ruth Chatteron (Madame X), Betty Compson (The Barker), Jeanne Eagels (The Letter), Corinne Griffith (The Divine Lady), and Bessie Love (The Broadway Melody). Of these nominees, I've only seen The Divine Lady and The Broadway Melody, and I can't say they left much of an impression.

I don't recall having strong feelings about Coquette or Mary Pickford at the time; what struck me this time around was how little I remembered plot-wise. 

I was reading reviews afterwards and one stuck out to me: that Mary, who made her name in silent films, is acting like she's in a silent film. The pace of her speech, the emphasis on random words and the punctuating facial expressions all add up to a performance that doesn't really know how to be sound. If this were a silent movie, I think she'd probably still have won, but maybe the backlash against her performance wouldn't be as severe? 

DID I LIKE COQUETTE? It's definitely not a favourite, but I'd be reluctant to say, at this point, that it's bottom tier. Maybe when I'm at the end of this endeavour.
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Did you like Coquette? What are your thoughts on Mary Pickford as an Oscar winner?

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here!

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  1. nitrateglowJanuary 30, 2025 at 9:24 AM

    Of those nominees, I've seen The Divine Lady, The Letter, The Broadway Melody, and Coquette. While Mary in Coquette is not the weakest performance of that quartet, I much preferred Jeanne Eagels in TL who is genuinely fantastic. Pickford in Coquette seems overconscious of the microphone and trying really hard to break her young girl/ingenue image by playing a "naughty" character. It feels strained. The movie itself is very average too from what I recall.

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