Pure Pickford Pleasure

In this classic romantic comedy, Mary Pickford plays Maggie Johnson, a feisty shop girl who falls in love with Joe Grant (Buddy Rogers), a newly hired stock-room worker with boyish good looks and undeniable charm.

Unbeknownst to Maggie, Joe is really the son of wealthy store-chain owner Robert Merrill. He's working at the store under an assumed name in order prove to his father that he can win a promotion with his own abilities, without the help of family influence.

As Maggie takes Joe under her wing to learn the workings of the 5 and 10 stockroom, Joe becomes smitten in spite of himself, while Maggie’s family does its best to embarrass her with their eccentric ways and clinging dependence on her for their every need.

Joe has his own worries to contend with, including a secret engagement to society girl Millicent Rogers (Avonne Taylor), which his mother is eager to announce as soon as possible.

Rather than coming across as deliberately deceitful, Joe strikes the audience as polite, good-natured, and wholesome, understandably enjoying his time as the lowly Joe Grant, falling deeper in love with the kind-hearted Maggie with each adoring look from her big brown eyes. The audience is left wondering what will happen when Maggie discovers Joe's identity and engagement.

The great contrast between the lifestyles of humble Maggie and upper-class Joe are most clearly evident through the set-design of the grand Merrill home, high-ceilinged, elegant, and impeccably decorated, as opposed to the simple and disorganized furnishings of the Johnson home on Goat Hill.

Further class distinctions are evident when Maggie is cajoled by Joe into going to dinner at the Merrill home. Maggie is obviously not well-versed in high society manners, refusing to allow the butler to take her coat, and impulsively reaching out to grab the dishes the servants are doing their best to serve. She commits further faux pas by polishing the silverware before eating, selecting the wrong silverware for each course, and picking ice out of her goblet and popping it into her mouth with her hands.

The servants cast amused side-glances at each other and roll their eyes at her ignorance. In one instance a servant deftly evades her as she reaches out to grab another dish from him, instead placing it before Joe with a dignified air.

In spite of Maggie's lack of sophistication, the audience can't help hoping that her romance with Joe will work out and rescue her from the drudgery of her home-life. Maggie acts as the primary care-giver in her home, cooking, cleaning, resolving arguments and getting her elder sister out of trouble. Her mother is a befuddled woman prone to fainting fits, and her father a cowed-looking man with little common sense.

When her sister, Liz (Carmelita Geraghty), gets into a scrape with the law, her parents bumble around helplessly until Maggie arrives to take charge of the situation and save the day.

But, it is the innocent love scenes between Maggie and Joe that truly make this movie enjoyable. From their amusing first meeting when Joe pretends to be a customer and puts Maggie through hoops to sell him blow-up toys, to their lunch-time first kiss in a stock-room shipping box, the two lovers enchant the audience with their simple and sweet admiration for each other and playful conversation.

My Best Girl doesn’t hold out on pathos either. Mary's performance as Maggie is particularly soul-stirring, especially the heart-wrenching moment when she meets Joe's fiancee and parents.

In the space of 10 seconds a myriad of emotions cross her face, shock, outrage, disappointment, distress, heart-break, and sad acceptance. As she tearfully runs out of the Merrill home through the dark rain-spattered streets, the audience can’t help pitying her miserable state or anguish-stricken Joe Merrill’s.

Not all love story, though, the film keeps viewers entertained with lively bits of comedy interspersed between the more dramatic scenes. I especially enjoyed the frenzied commotion at the end as Maggie’s entire family throws clothing and luggage around the house like mad as they rush to get her dressed and packed. Maggie’s attempts to hide her embarrassing family argument by pretending they’re rehearsing for a drama club is similarly comical.

Although the movie doesn’t utilize any earth-shattering filming techniques to tell its story, it does offer visual interest in the opening scene introducing Maggie Johnson. Maggie is seen only from the knees down as she struggles down a hallway dropping cooking pots left and right. The shot manages to establish Maggie’s character even before we see her face, simply by showing her stamp her foot and march along in determination.

The scenes of Maggie and Joe wandering aimlessly through highly trafficked streets, also reveal the work of highly skilled choreographers working behind the scenes to shoot complicated simultaneous movement.

Seemingly oblivious to the chaos around them, as befits distracted lovers, Maggie and Joe navigate through a maze of horse-drawn carts, carriages, trolleys and cars rushing past them, appearing to miss a few by just inches. I shudder to think that the movie might have never been completed had one of the stars been struck and killed by the rushing traffic.

Although My Best Girl does not attempt to be a serious drama, and might be considered sappy and unrealistic by some, it provides a satisfying love story with a happy ending and features excellent on-screen chemistry between the two lead stars. Only a truly jaded viewer indeed could fail to be charmed by this delightful romantic comedy.

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