VCI Entertainment has once again dug into the Mary Pickford vaults, releasing another great silent starring the legendary actress. Stella Maris is a 1918 classic silent drama where she plays two completely different characters, and both happen to fall in love with a married man! The film is based on William John Locke’s 1913 novel of the same title and was also remade in 1925.
In Marshall Neillan’s Stella Maris, Mary Pickford (Sparrows, Coquette) is the title character, Stella, a woman who was born paralyzed and unable to walk, is living a sheltered life due to her parents not wanting her to be hurt or heartbroken because of her condition. Stella has no idea what’s going on in the real world because her parents do not want her to see all the negativity and sadness of people struggling to live. Stella has an operation that will have her walking within a few years. John Riska (Conway Tearle, The King Murder) had been visiting Mary every day since she was paralyzed, and they wind up falling in love with each other. The problem is John happens to be an unhappily married man who is separated from his horrible wife, but is still married to her, and feeling trapped.
Meanwhile Unity Blake (also Mary Pickford), an orphan who has gone through some bad experiences in life, ends up getting adopted by John’s wife Louise Riska (Marcia Manon, Old Kentucky). Unfortunately for Unity, Louise didn’t plan for Unity to be her daughter; she wanted a housekeeper. Things go horribly bad for Unity including being beaten by a drunken Louise over some groceries. Later, John decides to adopt Unity and she stays with him and the family. They keep her away from Stella, so that Stella isn’t exposed to people suffering, but that falls flat. Unity also falls in love with John but keeps it to herself. She knows Stella is in love with him.
After watching the movie two days in a row, I found Stella Maris to be a fantastic ahead of its time classic. The story was heartfelt and quite moving with Stella feeling anguish and sadness for the first time in her life after she finds out John is married to a mean, nasty woman in Louise, while Unity makes a tough decision and does something that I would guess was shocking for its time. Mary Pickford is nothing short of phenomenal in her dual roles. She was an incredible actress! Conway Tearle is simply magnificent as John, whose facial expressions of being tormented by his wife and wanted to tell the truth to Stella are incredible. Marica Manon was also perfect as John’s horrible wife and her expressions are also priceless. The characters are more than compelling to hold your interest to go with a few shocking (for 1918) scenes. The cinematography by Walter Stradling is also incredible, including shots where both Stella and Unity appear together in the same scene through some magical camera work done by both Stradling and director Marshall Neilan. This is most impressive for 1918.
VCI Entertainment has released Stella Maris onto Blu-ray. It is a 2-disc set, with a Blu-ray and a DVD included in the package.
On the disc itself before the film, there is a story about the restoration of the film: “The two primary elements used in this restoration were a 1967 35mm B&W Dupe Negative and an incomplete 1925 35mm Tinted Print. Scans from the Dupe Negative were used for the majority of the feature, and all surviving material from the print was inserted where possible. New inter-titles were digitally recreated for the Dupe Negative to match the feel and length of the Print, as the cards in the Negative were static and much longer than originally intended. The tinting scheme of the Print was used for all evening sequences: amber for night interiors and blue for night exteriors, with the rest of the feature B&W for all daytime sequences. Lastly, all the most egregious damage was digitally repaired, the film’s printed-in jitter was stabilized, and the film’s frame-rate was digitally varisped to 19fps, mirroring a more natural, hand-cranked projection speed suitable for 1918, the year of the film’s release.”
The picture quality for Stella Maris is delightful with a nice, clean image. Yes, there are a few speckles and some vertical lines that appear on occasion, but the lines tend to be faint but can easily be spotted on a larger size television. The image is stable with dark blacks and clear whites, with a grey scale that is balanced throughout the presentation. Some of the scenes are tinted, mainly tan and blue and look remarkable. Outside of a few issues that I mentioned I felt the restoration had a clean, polished appearance. Film grain is also present while giving the movie a couple of spins. No DNR or other artificial enhancements appear to have been used.
For this Blu-ray, English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack has been applied and is strong with the excellent musical score by the Graves Brothers coming in perfectly clear without drop-offs, hissing or other age-old anomalies.
There are some bonus features on this release including an audio commentary track by author and film historian Marc Wanamaker. Those who enjoy commentaries should give this one a listen to hear about the making of Stella Maris, Mary Pickford and members of the cast and crew.
A liner notes pictorial booklet by the Mary Pickford Foundation is included and has a wealth of information about the movie, plus there is a photo gallery.
A short film that was released on November 25th, 1909, called The Mountaineer’s Honor is also part of the extras package. This film also stars Mary Pickford and is directed by D.W. Griffith (Intolerance). The image quality for this movie hasn’t been restored with speckles and vertical lines clearly spotted throughout, but it still looks strong and will have no problems viewing it.
This to me a great release and for those who enjoy silent classics, this Blu-ray of Stella Maris is highly recommended! The audio and video is as good as it will get, plus there are a few supplements and a booklet to make this a great package!
Stella Maris (1918)
Director – Marshall Neilan
Cast- Mary Pickford, Conway Tearle, Maria Manon
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – VCI Entertainment
Number of Discs – 2 (1 DVD and 1 Blu-ray)
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 11/26/2023