Coquette
About Coquette
Norma Besant, a doctor's daughter played by Mary Pickford, is the most courted girl in town. She is engaged to Stanley Wentworth and meets Michael Jeffrey, a cotton-mill worker played by Johnny Mack Brown, in secret. Her father forbids the affair, confronts Michael, and shoots him. At the trial Norma has to choose between protecting her father and saying what she knows.
Cast & crew
More about Coquette
Sam Taylor directed and produced the film with Mary Pickford. It is her first all-talking picture, from the 1927 play by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers. John Grey and Allen McNeil share the script credit with Taylor. United Artists released it on 12 April 1929. The New York opening was at the Rivoli on 5 April 1929. Shooting ran from 26 December 1928 into early February 1929. Karl Struss photographed it. Barbara McLean edited.
Themes
Background
Pickford cut her curls for her first talkie. The 2nd Academy Awards, covering 1928–29, gave her Best Actress for this part.
Making
The Rivoli premiere on 5 April 1929 stopped when a fuse cut the sound. A second start was still poor. Technicians got a third start going.
Reviews
Variety on 10 April 1929 called Coquette merely good. Film Daily on 14 April 1929 singled out Pickford's voice.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld is credited with the score. Irving Berlin wrote the title song Coquette.
Preservation
Complete prints survive. In the 1990s the Library of Congress and the Mary Pickford Institute restored one.
Notes
- Matt Moore plays Stanley Wentworth. John St. Polis and William Janney are also billed.
- A house fuse at the Rivoli killed the sound at the premiere. They started the film twice more before the track held.
- Variety, via the AFI record, put the Rivoli opening-weekend take at $21,000. Tickets were $2.
- Published totals for the whole run are given as both $1,400,000 and $1,500,000.
- Film Daily on 14 April 1929 called Pickford's voice lovely. Variety on 10 April called the picture merely good and faulted the appeal to the censors.
- Irving Berlin wrote a song titled Coquette for the film.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Actress (Mary Pickford, 2nd Academy Awards, 1930)
Scenes
- Norma's father shoots Michael Jeffrey.
- In court she has to decide what to say on Michael's behalf.
Influenced by
- George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers's play Coquette (1927)
