Gwendolyn is an 11-year-old girl who is left by her rich and busy parents to the care of unsympathetic domestic workers 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.[7]
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.”[8] Wagenknecht adds that Pickford’s character Gwen “is very different from either Rebecca or Pollyanna—more helpless and less resourceful and considerably more wistful.”[9]
Twenty-five-years-of-age when the film was released, Pickford struggled to transition to more mature roles later in her career.[10]
^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.”
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 ISBN0826429777, pages 57–28 [1]
