Sparrows (1926)

A cruel and ill tempered man (Gustav von Seyffertiz) and his wife (Charlotte Mineau) operate a baby farm in the swamps. The oldest of the children is a young girl (Mary Pickford) who is in charge of the younger kids. But when the man becomes involved in the kidnapping of a baby (Mary Louise Miller) for ransom, it puts the rest of the children in danger. Directed by William Beaudine with an assist from Tom McNamara who finished the film when Beaudine and Pickford repeatedly clashed. This was the next to last of Pickford's silent films and at age 34, she was clearly getting too old to play teenagers any longer. But this is a very well done Dickensian film with some especially notable moments. The escape through the alligator infested swamp is superbly done, fraught with tension and excitement. There's some minor nitpicking (just where is the kidnapped baby's mother?) but on the whole, a solid vehicle. The transfer I saw points out the importance of music to silent cinema. Most "Mickey Mouse" scoring of silent movies do the films no favor, they're piano doodlings or worse (those godawful organ scores) but this print had a newly composed underscore by Jeffrey Silverman that works against the sentimental aspects of the film while a lesser composer would probably emphasis the sentimentality.