Fanchon, the Cricket | |
---|---|
Directed by | James Kirkwood |
Written by | James Kirkwood (scenario) Frances Marion (scenario) |
Based on | La Petite Fadette 1849 novel by George Sand |
Produced by | Daniel Frohman |
Starring | Mary Pickford Jack Standing |
Cinematography | Edward Wynard |
Production company | Famous Players Film Company |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 5 reels |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Fanchon the Cricket is a 1915 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a novel, La Petite Fadette by George Sand. It was directed by James Kirkwood and stars Mary Pickford, at the time working for Adolph Zukor and Daniel Frohman. A previous film version of the story was released in 1912 by IMP (later Universal Pictures) and directed by Herbert Brenon. [1]
Fanchon the Cricket is the only film to feature all three Pickford siblings: Mary (in the lead role), Lottie Pickford and Jack Pickford. Milton Berle, Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire are also listed among the cast. Astaire biographer Tim Satchell maintains that the film is the only one to feature the dancing duo of Fred and Adele Astaire. Fred Astaire later said he had no recollection of working on the film. [2] All three roles have yet to be positively confirmed.
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The film was released in New Zealand in late 1915, playing in Wellington at the People's Picture Palace in mid-December, [3] and playing through January in Greytown. [4]
Gladys Louise Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian actress resident in the U.S., and also producer, screenwriter, and film studio founder. She was a pioneer in the American film industry, with a Hollywood career that spanned five decades.
Fred Astaire was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter. He is widely regarded as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time". He received numerous accolades including an Honorary Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1973, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989.
1917 in film was a particularly fruitful year for the art form, and is often cited as one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1913. Secondarily the year saw a limited global embrace of narrative film-making and featured innovative techniques such as continuity cutting. Primarily, the year is an American landmark, as 1917 is the first year where the narrative and visual style is typified as "Classical Hollywood".
The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.
Motion pictures have been a part of the culture of Canada since the industry began.
John Charles Smith, known professionally as Jack Pickford, was a Canadian-American actor, film director and producer. He was the younger brother of actresses Mary and Lottie Pickford.
Owen Moore was an Irish-born American actor, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.
Frances Marion was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. During the course of her career, she wrote over 325 scripts. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards. Marion began her film career working for filmmaker Lois Weber. She wrote numerous silent film scenarios for actress Mary Pickford, before transitioning to writing sound films.
Blood and Sand is a 1922 American silent drama film produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Fred Niblo and starring Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee, and Nita Naldi. It was based on the 1908 Spanish novel Sangre y arena by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and the play Blood and Sand by Thomas Cushing which was adapted from Ibáñez's novel.
Mary Claire Fuller was an American actress active in both stage and silent films. She also was a screenwriter and had several films produced. An early major star, by 1917 she could no longer obtain roles in film or on stage. A later effort to revive her career in Hollywood failed in the 1920s after talkies began to dominate film. After suffering a nervous breakdown, she was admitted to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC in 1947 and lived there until her death.
Helen Marguerite Clark was an American stage and silent film actress. As a movie actress, at one time Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity. With a few exceptions and some fragments, most of Clark's films are considered lost.
John Hartford Hoxie was an American rodeo performer and motion-picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns and rarely strayed from the genre.
Charlotte Smith, known professionally as Lottie Pickford, was a Canadian-American silent film actress and socialite. She was the younger sister of fellow actress Mary Pickford and elder sister of actor Jack Pickford.
Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart".
La Petite Fadette, also published in English under the titles Little Fadette. A Domestic Story (1849), Fadette. A Domestic Story (1851) and Little Fadette (1967), is an 1849 novel written by French novelist George Sand, born Amantine Dupin. Sand wrote the rural story together with La Mare au Diable and François le Champi in the 1840s as she returned from Paris to the countryside of Châteauroux. The novel is one of Sand's best known today.
To Save Her Soul is a 1909 American short silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Mary Pickford. The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey when many of the early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Centaur Film Company was an American motion picture production company founded in 1907 in Bayonne, New Jersey, by William and David Horsley. It was the first independent motion picture production company in the United States. In 1909 the company added a West Coast production unit, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first permanent film studio in Hollywood, California, in 1911. The company was absorbed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.
Jack Standing was an English born American actor.
A Girl of Yesterday is a 1915 American silent comedy film directed by Allan Dwan, and distributed by Paramount Pictures and Famous Players–Lasky. The film starred Mary Pickford as an older woman. Before this film, Pickford was mainly cast in "little girl" roles which were popular with the public. A Girl of Yesterday costarred Pickford's younger brother Jack, Marshall Neilan, Donald Crisp and Frances Marion, who later became a prolific screenwriter. Real life aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin also made a cameo in the film.
Alfred Emory Johnson was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. As a teenager, he started acting in silent films. Early in his career, Carl Laemmle chose Emory to become a Universal Studio leading man. He also became part of one of the early Hollywood celebrity marriages when he wed Ella Hall.