Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was the first film version of the Kate Douglas Wiggin novel and play. Mary Pickford, 23 years old but looking at least ten years younger, stars as the spunky little girl who is left with her tight-lipped aunt Helen Jerome Eddy by her impoverished mother. It's an uphill… More Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was the first film version of the Kate Douglas Wiggin novel and play. Mary Pickford, 23 years old but looking at least ten years younger, stars as the spunky little girl who is left with her tight-lipped aunt Helen Jerome Eddy by her impoverished mother. It's an uphill battle, but Rebecca manages to spread a little sunshine around the staid New England community where her aunt resides. Her reward comes when she is "all grow'd up," at which time she falls in love with handsome Eugene O'Brien. Yes, we know that none of this happens in the 1938 Shirley Temple version. Remember, though, that Mary Pickford could play a little girl who grows up in the course of a single film, while Shirley was stuck at age 9, whether she liked it or not. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi