In My Best Girl, Mary Pickford demonstrates the winsome charm that won her the title "America's Sweetheart." She plays Maggie Johnson, a sensible stockroom girl at Merrill's, a five-and-ten-cent store. This is the heyday of the big five-and-dimes and Robert Merrill (Hobart Bosworth), the store's wealthy owner, is clearly a stand-in for F.W. Woolworth. The opening shot of Maggie displays Pickford's prodigious gift for physical comedy. She stumbles onto the selling floor laden with pots and pans, kicking them out of her way and wearing them like shoes. Then, when a salesgirl takes a break, Maggie is given the chance to be a salesgirl herself for a fateful few moments. Maggie's first and only customer is the owner's son, Joe Merrill, (fresh-faced and sunny Charles "Buddy" Rogers). Maggie has no clue of the young man's pedigree, as he is slumming as "Joe Grant." His father has insisted that he work his way up as a humble store clerk without benefit of his famous name. The chemistry between Joe and Maggie is instantly apparent. Maggie takes him down to the stockroom, where he's helpless with the simplest tasks. "You know, you're awfully dumb," she tells him. But thanks to her patient training, he's eventually promoted to the position of her boss. (It's an appealing role reversal of the principals in the "Pygmalion"/"My Fair Lady" tale.) In the meantime, of course, they fall in love.
The moment when Maggie realizes Joe's true identity is stunning. She runs back to her humble family on "Goat Hill": fumbling father, (Lucien Littlefield), lachrymose mother (Sunshine Hart), and reprobate sister (Carmelita Geraghty). Is Maggie and Joe's love affair doomed? Or will they sail away to paradise together? Only those who see My Best Girl can learn the answers to these burning questions. --Laura Mirsky
Pickford's finest romantic comedy.--Village Voice. Maggie (Mary Pickford), a shop girl in a five-and-dime store, falls in love with the owner's son Joe (Charles "Buddy" Rogers), who is working incognito as a clerk to prove himself to his father. A timeless Cinderella tale set in the roaring twenties, "My Best Girl" is one of Hollywood's greatest romantic comedies. Also included is newsreel footage of the marriage of Buddy Rogers and Mary Pickford, as well as home movies of their life together.
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