Johanna Enlists (1918)

An uneducated country girl (Mary Pickford) is bored with farm life and longs for romance and excitement. She gets all that when a regiment of soldiers on their way to Europe to fight in WWI camp in the fields near her farm for several days. Based on the short story THE MOBILIZATION OF JOHANNA by Rupert Hughes and directed by William Desmond Taylor (ANNE OF GREEN GABLES). A slight but charming story which shows Pickford at the height of her fame. WWI was still going on while the movie was being made and while not a war propaganda film, the movie was an effort to spotlight the American soldiers fighting overseas. Real soldiers were used for the movie as background actors. Pickford was a tireless fundraiser for the war effort and an unofficial "godmother" to the U.S. Artillery Corps. Music is an essential and effective part of silent cinema and the transfer I saw had a lovely new underscore by Dan Light. With Wallace Beery, Monte Blue, Douglas MacLean and Emory Johnson.