View source for The Poor Little Rich Girl

{{Short description|1917 US film directed by Maurice Tourneur}}
{{About|the 1917 film||Poor Little Rich Girl (disambiguation){{!}}Poor Little Rich Girl}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Poor Little Rich Girl
| image = A Poor Little Rich Girl.jpg
| caption = Advertisement for the film
| writer = [[Frances Marion]]
| starring = [[Mary Pickford]]<br>[[Madlaine Traverse]]<br>[[Charles Wellesley]]<br>[[Gladys Fairbanks]]
| director = [[Maurice Tourneur]]
| producer = [[Adolph Zukor]]
| cinematography = [[Lucien Andriot]]<br>[[John van den Broek]]
| distributor = Artcraft Pictures Corporation
| released = {{Film date|1917|3|5}}
| runtime = 65 minutes
| language = Silent film <br> English intertitles
| budget = 
| country = United States
}}

'''''The Poor Little Rich Girl''''' is a 1917 American [[comedy-drama]] film directed by [[Maurice Tourneur]]. Adapted by [[Frances Marion]] from the 1913 play by [[Eleanor Gates]].<ref>[http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=7568 ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' as presented on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre January 21, 1913 to June 1913; IBDb.com]</ref> The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress [[Viola Dana]].<ref>''Pictorial History of the American Theatre: 1860–1970'', pp. 139–140 3rd Edit. enlarged and revised by John Willis, c. 1970</ref> The film stars [[Mary Pickford]], [[Madlaine Traverse]], Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks (returning from the play) and [[Frank McGlynn Sr.]]

The film was shot in [[Fort Lee, New Jersey]] when early [[film studio]]s in [[America's first motion picture industry]] were based there at the beginning of the 20th century.<ref>{{Citation | last = Koszarski | first = Richard | title = Fort Lee: The Film Town | place = Rome, Italy | publisher = John Libbey Publishing -CIC srl | year = 2004 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5w0r8YKan04C&q=Fort+Lee:+the+film+town+Door+Richard+Koszarski | isbn = 0-86196-653-8 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title = Studios and Films | publisher = Fort Lee Film Commission | url = http://www.fortleefilm.org/studios.html | access-date = 2011-05-30 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last = Fort Lee Film Commission | title = Fort Lee Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry | publisher = Arcadia Publishing | year = 2006 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ViR3b72xkK0C&q=Fort+Lee+Birthplace+of+the+Motion+Picture+Industry | isbn = 0-7385-4501-5 }}</ref> In 1991, ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States [[Library of Congress]] and selected for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-07}}</ref>

==Plot==
[[File:The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917).webm|thumb|thumbtime=12|250px|''The Poor Little Rich Girl'']]
Gwendolyn is an 11-year-old girl who is left by her rich and busy parents to the care of unsympathetic [[domestic worker]]s at the family's mansion. Her mother is only interested in her social life and her father has serious financial problems and is even contemplating suicide. 
When she manages to have some good time with an organ-grinder or a plumber, or have a mud-fight with street boys, she is rapidly brought back on the right track. 
One day, she becomes sick because the maid has given her an extra dose of sleeping medicine to be able to go out. She then becomes delirious and starts seeing an imaginary world inspired by people and things around her; the Garden of Lonely Children in the Tell-Tale forest. Her conditions worsen and Death tries to lure her to eternal rest. But Life also appears to her and finally wins.<ref>Review, synopsis and link to watch the film {{cite web |url=http://a-cinema-history.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-poor-little-rich-girl-1936.html|title=A cinema history|date=1917|access-date=6 June 2014}}</ref>

==Cast==
* [[Mary Pickford]] as Gwendolyn
* [[Madlaine Traverse]] as Gwendolyn's Mother
* [[Charles Wellesley]] as Gwendolyn's Father
* Gladys Fairbanks as Jane
* [[Frank McGlynn Sr.]] as The Plumber
* Emile La Croix as The Organ Grinder
* [[Marcia Harris]] as Miss Royale
* [[Charles Craig (actor)|Charles Craig]] as Thomas
* Frank Andrews as Potter
* [[Herbert Prior]] as The Doctor
* George Gernon as Johnny Blake
* [[Maxine Elliott Hicks]] as Susie May Squoggs

==Retrospective appraisal==
Film historian [[Edward Wagenknecht]] identifies ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' as an inflection point in Mary Pickford’s screen portrayals: ““[I]t was not until after the beginning of the feature film era that Miss Pickford became definitely associated with ''ingénue'' roles and it was not until ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' that she appeared all through a feature as a child.”<ref>Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 156</ref> Wagenknecht adds that Pickford’s character Gwen “is very different from either [[Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917 film)|Rebecca]] or [[Pollyanna (1920 film)|Pollyanna]]—more helpless and less resourceful and considerably more wistful.”<ref>Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 156</ref>

Twenty-five-years-of-age when the film was released, Pickford struggled to transition to more mature roles later in her career.<ref>Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 156: “The public's preference for seeing her in youthful roles became an ever-increasing problem to her as she grew older, and she made a number of attempts to break away.”</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Film}}
* [[List of American comedy films]]
* [[Mary Pickford filmography]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*[[Edward Wagenknecht|Wagenknecht, Edward.]] 1962. ''The Movies in the Age of Innocence.'' [[University of Oklahoma Press]], [[Norman, Oklahoma]]. OCLC: 305160

== Further reading ==

* Schmidt, Christel, ed. (2013). ''Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies''. [[Library of Congress]]/[[University Press of Kentucky]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8131-3647-9}}.
* {{cite journal|last=Schmidt|first=Christel|date=2003|title=Preserving Pickford: The Mary Pickford Collection and the Library of Congress|journal=[[The Moving Image]]|publisher=[[Association of Moving Image Archivists]]|volume=3|issue=1|pages=59{{en dash}}81|doi=10.1353/mov.2003.0013|s2cid=191609277}}{{subscription required}}

==External links==
{{commons category|The Poor Little Rich Girl}}
*[https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/poor_little_rich_girl.pdf ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' essay] by [[Eileen Whitfield]] at [[National Film Registry]]
*{{IMDb title|id=0008443|title=The Poor Little Rich Girl}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=499041|title=The Poor Little Rich Girl}} 
* {{Internet Archive film|id=ThePoorLittleRichGirl|name=The Poor Little Rich Girl}}
* ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 57–28 [https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC]

{{Maurice Tourneur}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poor Little Rich Girl, The}}
[[Category:1917 films]]
[[Category:1917 comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:1910s American films]]
[[Category:1910s English-language films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American films based on plays]]
[[Category:American silent feature films]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:English-language comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Maurice Tourneur]]
[[Category:Films shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Frances Marion]]
[[Category:American silent comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Surviving American silent films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]