Coquette (1929)

A Southern belle (Mary Pickford) is an incorrigible flirt but when she falls in love with a young man (Johnny Mack Brown) below her station by her father's standards, her father (John St. Polis) insists she never sees him again. When he finds out she has been seeing the boy behind his back, he takes matters into his own hands with tragic results. Based on the play by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers which starred Helen Hayes and directed by Sam Taylor. This is a perfectly ridiculous melodrama and as one of the very early sound films, it creaks. Although a pre-code film, the plot was still considered too shocking for cinema audiences so extensive changes were made. Pickford won a best actress Oscar for her performance (her first all talking movie) here and she's barely adequate. But audiences ate it up and the film was a box office hit. I found the premise somewhat immoral as Pickford perjures herself on the stand by throwing the innocent man her father murdered under the bus in order to save her father from hanging. The film is interesting as a curio of early sound cinema and one of Pickford's few talkies but that's about it. With Matt Moore and Louise Beavers.