Coquette (1929)

Interesting facts

• Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1. Including: Academy Award for Best Actress

Coquette is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film directed by Sam Taylor and starring Mary Pickford, who won the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Production

Coquette stars silent star Mary Pickford, one of the most popular stars in silent film, in her first talkie. She became one of the first major stars of the silent era to find success in the new era of sound films. At her Pickfair Studios, she installed a sound stage in 1928 and began preparing for her first talkie.

Pickford purchased the rights to the story, a play by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers. The script was then adapted for the screen by John Grey, Allen McNeil and Sam Taylor. The play was based on real events in Richmond County, North Carolina, some dialogue was used verbatim from court testimony. The play originally opened in New York on November 8, 1927, with Helen Hayes in the title role.

The nascent sound technology of the time caused footsteps or rattling jewelry to ruin takes. Cameras could barely move and were positioned behind glass barriers to prevent their interference with the sound recording. However, the film has more natural movement and acting than do other early talkies.

Though a product of pre-Code Hollywood, the film was heavily censored during scripting. In the play, the leading lady is pregnant and the story hinges on the fact that she carries the child of the man killed by her father. Her father murders the man because he had asked to marry the girl. But to save her father from disgrace when her pregnancy becomes apparent, she preemptively kills herself.

William Cameron Menzies provided set decoration although the film credits him for "settings". Karl Struss was the film's cinematographer.

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