The Hoodlum (1919 film)

Last updated
The Hoodlum
PLAY film; runtime 01:22:37 with credits.
Directed by Sidney Franklin
Based onBurkeses Amy
by Julie M. Lippmann
Produced by Mary Pickford
StarringMary Pickford
Cinematography Charles Rosher
Edited byEdward McDermott
Distributed by First National
Release date
  • August 31, 1919 (1919-08-31)
Running time
78 minutes; 7 reels (6,462 feet)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles

The Hoodlum is a 1919 silent film comedy-drama produced by and starring Mary Pickford and released through First National. The film was directed by Sidney A. Franklin and was based on the novel Burkeses Amy by Julie Mathilde Lippmann. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

Spoiled Amy Burke (Mary Pickford) lives with her doting grandfather, ruthless business magnate Alexander Guthrie (Ralph Lewis), in his Fifth Avenue, New York City mansion. She is initially delighted when he offers to take her with him on a trip to Europe. However, as the day approaches for their departure, she changes her mind and decides to go live with her newly returned father, "sociological writer" John Burke (T. D. Crittenden), at Craigen Street, wherever that is. Unused to having his plans thwarted, Guthrie becomes cold to his beloved granddaughter.

Craigen Street turns out to be in one of the slums of lower New York, the subject of her father's study. At first, Amy is horrified by the squalor. She makes it clear to a couple of friendly young women who want to become acquainted and to Nora (Aggie Herring), her father's cook and servant, that she feels she is far above them. Deeply unhappy, she eventually takes her father's advice to treat their neighbors as equals. She fits in after several weeks. She makes friends with boy inventor Dish Lowry and young man William Turner (Kenneth Harlan), a reclusive neighbor. Amy also ends a years-long feud between Irishman Pat O'Shaughnessy (Andrew Arbuckle) and Jew Abram Isaacs (Max Davidson) through good-natured trickery.

Newspaper advertisement for film in The Ogden Standard, Utah The Hoodlum newspaper ad.png
Newspaper advertisement for film in The Ogden Standard , Utah

When a policeman is alerted by a sore loser to her game of craps in the street, she escapes by hiding under the cloak of newcomer Peter Cooper, who takes a room on the floor above the Burkes'. Unbeknownst to Amy, the new resident is actually her grandfather in disguise, come to see how she is doing. He is initially disgusted with her behavior, noting on paper that she "has become a hoodlum". When Amy takes a sick mother and her children under her wing, she asks Cooper to look after a baby, only to be brusquely rebuffed. Cooper has a change of heart, however, and adopts a whole new, more benevolent attitude, much to Amy's delight. He returns to his mansion a changed man (taking along Dish Lowry).

One night, Amy spots a thief in Turner's room. The intruder flees. Turner informs Amy that it was no thief but an agent of Alexander Guthrie looking for his writings. Guthrie framed him to hide corrupt business practices, resulting in a year in the penitentiary. Amy and Turner break into her grandfather's mansion to try to steal evidence that would prove him innocent, but set off a burglar alarm and are caught. When Guthrie recognizes Amy, he has Turner freed and offers to exonerate him. Afterward, Amy and Turner are married.

Cast

Public service announcement

At least some prints of the film open with Pickford in a public service announcement for World War I war savings stamps.[ citation needed ]

Preservation

The Hoodlum was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1998. [4]

Home media

The film is in the public domain. [2] It has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Pickford</span> Canadian actress and producer (1892–1979)

Gladys Marie Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian actress resident in the U.S., and also producer, screenwriter and film studio founder, who was a pioneer in the US film industry with a Hollywood career that spanned five decades.

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Pickford</span> Canadian-American actor (1896–1933)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olive Thomas</span> American actress and model (1894–1920)

Olive Thomas was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model.

<i>Secrets</i> (1933 film) 1933film

Secrets is a 1933 American pre-Code Western film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Mary Pickford in her last film role. The film is a remake of Secrets (1924), a silent film starring Norma Talmadge, which was based on a 1922 play of the same name.

<i>Suds</i> (film) 1920 film

Suds is a 1920 American silent comedy film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Mary Pickford. The film is based on the 1904 English stage play 'Op o' Me Thumb, a one-act work first produced in London and presented the following year in New York with Maude Adams, a curtain raiser for her appearance in Peter Pan.

<i>Ramona</i> (1910 film) 1910 film

Ramona is a 1910 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith, based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona. Through a love story, the early silent short explores racial injustice to Native Americans and stars Mary Pickford and Henry B. Walthall. A copy of the print survives in the Library of Congress film archive. The film was remade in 1928 with Dolores del Río and 1936 with Loretta Young.

<i>Sparrows</i> (1926 film) 1926 film

Sparrows is a 1926 American silent film about a young woman who rescues a baby from kidnappers. The film, which was originally titled Scraps, starred and was produced by Mary Pickford, who was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time.

<i>The Little American</i> 1917 film

The Little American is a 1917 American silent romantic war drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film stars Mary Pickford as an American woman who is in love with both a German soldier and a French soldier during World War I. A print of the film is housed at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and has been released on DVD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Lewis (actor)</span> American actor

Ralph Percy Lewis was an American actor of the silent film era.

<i>Among Those Present</i> 1921 film by Fred C. Newmeyer

Among Those Present is a 1921 American "three-reeler" silent comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis and Mary Pickford.

<i>Little Annie Rooney</i> (1925 film) 1925 film

Little Annie Rooney is a 1925 American silent comedy-drama film starring Mary Pickford and directed by William Beaudine. Pickford, one of the most successful actresses of the silent era, was best known throughout her career for her iconic portrayals of penniless young girls. After generating only modest box office revenue playing adults in her previous two films, Pickford wrote and produced Little Annie Rooney to cater to silent film audiences. Though she was 33 years old, Pickford played the title role, an Irish girl living in the slums of New York City.

<i>Through the Back Door</i> 1921 film

Through the Back Door is a 1921 American silent comedy drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, and starring Mary Pickford.

<i>Poor Little Peppina</i> 1916 film by Sidney Olcott

Poor Little Peppina is a 1916 American silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. The film was in 1916 Mary Pickford's longest film to be made. It was soon surpassed by her later films.

<i>The Eternal Grind</i> 1916 film by John B. OBrien

The Eternal Grind is a 1916 silent drama film directed by John B. O'Brien, and starring Mary Pickford. The film is inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in 1911.

<i>A Kiss from Mary Pickford</i> 1927 film

A Kiss From Mary Pickford is a 1927 Soviet silent comedy film made and directed by Sergei Komarov and co-written by Komarov and Vadim Shershenevich. The film, starring Igor Ilyinsky, is mostly known today because of a cameo by the popular film couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. The footage of the couple was shot during their visit to the USSR, with the couple knowingly participating as a gesture towards the Russian film industry.

<i>Hollywood</i> (1923 film) 1923 film by James Cruze

Hollywood is a 1923 American silent comedy film directed by James Cruze, co-written by Frank Condon and Thomas J. Geraghty, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a lengthier feature follow-up to Paramount's own short film exposé of itself, A Trip to Paramountown from 1922.

<i>The Goose Woman</i> 1925 film

The Goose Woman is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Louise Dresser with Jack Pickford as her son. The film was released by Universal Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Fairbanks</span> American actor and filmmaker (1883–1939)

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor and filmmaker. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films, including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro, but spent the early part of his career making comedies.

<i>Captain Kidd, Jr.</i> 1919 film directed by William Desmond Taylor

Captain Kidd, Jr. is a 1919 American silent film produced by and starring Mary Pickford and directed by William Desmond Taylor. It is her last released film for distribution by Paramount Pictures before moving to First National. The film is based on the 1916 play Captain Kidd Junior by Rida Johnson Young. Frequent Pickford collaborator Frances Marion wrote the scenario. This film exists in an incomplete print, with only two of the five reels.

References

  1. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911–20 / The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1911–1920. [Cover title and copyrighted title] University of California Press. 1989. ISBN   978-0520063013.
  2. 1 2 "The Hoodlum". Silent Era. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
  3. "Mary Pickford in "The Hoodlum."". The Register . Adelaide. 7 January 1920. Note: Turner Classic Movies, AllRovi and Silent Era all give the character's name as John Graham, but this does not match the opening credits and intertitles. See credits, at 2:00, at YouTube cite, below.
  4. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
  5. Kehr, Dave (November 16, 2012). "Defending the Young and Innocent: New DVDs, Mary Pickford on Blu-ray, Early Perry Mason". The New York Times .