There are some films
that are so well made and acted that even if the story is not that outstanding
they are still good. Secrets is one
of those films where the direction was great and the acting perfect and the
story just a touch melodramatic that turned out to be very good.
In the mid-1800s a young girl named Mary Marlowe (Mary
Pickford) is forced to marry a man she does love by her affluent parents. While
she and her mother are riding in a carriage to visit her father at work. Riding
beside the carriage on a bicycle is a young man named John Carlton (Leslie Howard).
There is a bee flying around their heads. Poor John is stung in the eye and
falls off his bicycle.
At the office Mary sees that John works as a clerk for
her father. John drops Mary a note to say that if he does not see her that night
he will drown himself. That Mary impatiently waits for John in the garden of her
house. John finally arrives. They both plan on meeting again.
Soon, Mary’s father finds her letters to John. He fires
John and refuses to give him any recommendation for other clerk positions. He
tells Mary that she is a disgrace to the family and will not hear her protests
against marrying the man they have chosen for her. The father also tells her
that if he sees John around her he will have the young man whipped and dragged
out of town.
A party is thrown for Mary’s engagement. John sneaks onto
the property and catches Mary’s eye by the back door. Mary pretends to faint
from too much excitement so she can be carried up to her room. She sends her
maid, the only person on her side about John, to find him in the garden. Before
she can turn around she hears something at her window. John found a ladder and
climbs up to her. He tells Mary that he is going away to California there is
nothing in New England for him and he wants to make money so he can come back
and marry her. Mary does not want to wait that long she wants to go with him.
He tells her their life will not be easy they will be starving and she will
have to do everything herself. Mary does not care just as long as she can be
with John. As John helps her change, her father comes upstairs to check on her.
Mary hides John behind her clothes on the floor! They manage to get away by
climbing out of the window and they elope that night.
The journey out west was difficult but once they settle
down they are happy in their home with their baby son. John plans on becoming governor
of California one day.
One day while John is away, a band of cattle thieves
comes to the house looking for food. Mary tries to make them go away but they
threaten the baby. On their way home, John and his friend Sunshine run into
their cattle and the thieves. When John returns neither he nor Mary mention
what has happened at first. John asks his wife if she would want to go back to
New England. Mary replies she would never dream of it. They both finally talk
about what has happened with the thieves. Mary mentions to John about taking
the law into their own hands as the only way to stop the thieves. John rounds
up some men and goes after the thieves.
John is away for two days. When he comes home a doctor is
at the house for the baby who has been sick with a fever. He has gotten some of
the thieves including the brother of the head of the thieves. The doctor tells
John to prepare for a war. John asks the doctor to send Mary and the baby back
to New England if anything happens to him. Not long after the doctor leaves the thieves
come looking for John. Mary braces the room where the baby is and goes out into
the front to stand by John. The thieves want John to surrender himself or they
will come in and kill everyone. Mary refuses to let her husband surrender. If
he does she will come out with him she will go with him she could never live
without him. She yells out to the thieves that John is not coming out. A gun
fight erupts. Mary goes to check on their son who has not made a sound. The
baby has died from his fever. Mary sits in their room holding the baby with
tears in her eyes. When John comes in she just tells him their son is sleeping.
She puts the baby down and goes back out to the front. She grabs the other
rifle since Sunshine is hurt. She hears someone on the roof and comes back to
find the head thief coming in through the window aiming his gun to shoot John.
Mary points the rifle at the thief and kills him. Help soon comes in the form
of the doctor and a few other men from town.
Years go by. John and Mary have four more children and
John runs for governor. At a party for the social elite of the town, a Spanish woman
comes with an escort. Everyone at the party, including Mary, knows that the
woman is the one John has been seen with. Mary is upset and goes into another
room. The woman comes in to speak to her. Mary tells the woman that if she
really loved John she would not have shamed him at his own party in front of
his family and friends. The woman tells Mary that John has wanted to leave her
(Mary) but she will not let him to do so and that is ruining his happiness.
John comes into the room and tells the woman what he has told her was lies that
he loves only Mary. The woman promises to destroy John with letters he has sent
her.
When the woman leaves Mary and John have a talk. She
knows there have been other women. There was even one when they were in New
York together. He says it might be better if she does leave him he does not
want her name and their children’s name to be ruined. Mary sticks by his side
even when the newspapers smatter their names all over their pages. Despite the
scandal John is nominated to governor.
As the years go on, John is elected to senator for
several years in a row.
In their old age John and Mary want to return to
California. Their children are vehemently against them traveling back to the
west. They are more worried for their mother they think she has done everything
for their father and he has done nothing for her. Mary comes out of their room
where they locked themselves away from the children and tells them that she and
John have their own secrets that they have never shared with them. They want to
be able to talk about their secrets without their children being around them.
I cannot even begin to explain how much I enjoyed Mary
Pickford in this film. The only other sound film I have seen of hers was Coquette and she was not very good in
that. Her voice was awful and her acting was something to be desired. But in Secrets Mary Pickford was fantastic. Her
acting was spot on it was not over dramatic or flawed. Her best scene was when
Mary Marlowe finds her baby has died. Pickford was heartbreaking in her silent
grief. She did not cry over dramatically she just held her baby and cried
silently with tears down her face. This was Pickford’s last film of her long
career. It is a shame that she did not continue with her career she could have
made a few more great movies or could have had a second career as a great
character actress. Her career could not have ended better her acting was
fantastic. Leslie Howard I am not a fan of but he was actually better good in
this as well. Howard usually over acts or just seems like a big moping mess. His
character was good he was not supposed to be poetic or sad or philosophical. I thought
Pickford and Howard’s best acted scene together was when John helps Mary change
her dress. It was like a scene out of one of Pickford’s silent comedies with
them scrambling and John hiding under all the undergarments on the floor.
Frank Borzage’s directing was beautiful. One of the best
scenes I have ever seen in a film was when John and Mary bury their son. It was
filmed from far away as if we were intruding on this sad moment. We see John
take Mary in his arms and walk away from the gravesite. In this scene there is
no music, there are no words. Another greatly filmed scene was when Mary finds
the baby has died and when she carries the baby’s body out of the fire-engulfed
room after the fight. Borzage’s direction and Pickford’s acting combined to
make a beautiful scene. The more I watch Borzage’s films the more I see his
genius. His direction really enhanced his characters more than the stories.
Secrets was a
very good film. The story was melodramatic as I said but the direction and
acting made up for it. I feel that had there been other actors who played the
characters or another director that it would have wound up as a forgettable
melodrama. I was not crazy about the story line where John cheats on Mary and
she then forgives him when he confesses that the other women meant nothing to
him that he loves her more than anything. Other than that the story was alright.
I liked the story most when Mary and John had met and when they travel and
settle out west. Secrets is currently
available to view on Youtube in parts. I highly suggest heading over there and
watching the film as soon as you can.
