Cinderella 1914 - Mary Pickford

Film Review and Rating / Synopsis

• Cinderella (1914) - Plot Summary - Silent film starring Mary Pickford. The classic fairy tale of Cinderella, dressed in rags, and badly treated by her wicked Stepmother and two meanie Stepsisters - they even keep poor Cinderella from going to the ball held by Prince Charming (Owen Moore, Mary Pickford's husband in real life when this was filmed), who is looking for a wife. Luckily Cinderella has a fairy godmother to help her out.

  Review - This was much better than I was actually expecting. I must say, I really like the way they did this film - it has a real magical "fairyish" feel to it, with pretty young girls as dancing wood nymphs, a wizard and his strange dwarf helpers (dancing and chanting in a circle) and lots of interesting special effects for the day. Some split-screen photography, plus lots of stop-motion camerawork to make characters appear and disappear. This film features the two UGLIEST step-sisters possible (with fake weird noses glued on, I believe) and the most handsome of handsome man to play Prince Charming - hurrah for that! The Milestone DVD includes a really terrific music score by Donald Sosin that really enhances the film. The tinted print of this is fairly faded, but I did really enjoy this. Rating - * 8.5 to 9/10 stars *
  
  Director: James Kirkwood
  Film Genre: Fantasy
  Film Runtime: 52 minutes

Links / Resources

• IMDb film listing for Cinderella (1914), cast and crew
• AFI Catalog Listing, cast, summary, tech details, information

RATINGS KEY:

10 = Absolutely Fabulous/Superb
9 = Really Good/Excellent
8 = Good
7 = Fairly Good/Decent
6 = So-so, some flaws
5 = Mediocre
4 = Not that good, many flaws
3 = Poor
2 = Very Poor/Stinker
1 = One of the worst BOMBS ever filmed