Suds (1920)

Director:

John Francis Dillon

Writers:

Waldemar Young (scenario) and
Richard Bryce (play)

Release Date:

27 January 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A London laundry woman tries to rise above her station in order to capture the love of a wealthy young man and thus misses out on the truer love of one of her own class.

Plot Keywords:

Laundry | Laundry Woman | Laundry Truck | Public Humiliation | Horse

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Mary Pickford	...	Amanda Afflick
Albert Austin	...	Horace Greensmith
Harold Goodwin	...	Benjamin Pillsbury Jones
Rose Dione	...	Madame Jeanne Gallifilet Didier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lavendor the Horse

Also Known As:

Op O' Me Thumb (USA) (working title)
The Duchess of Suds (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Mary Pickford Company

Movie Connections:

Edited into "The American Experience: Mary Pickford (#17.6)" (2005)

Uneven, But Generally Enjoyable

While it's more uneven than usual for a Mary Pickford feature, "Suds" is generally enjoyable, with a mix of material that works often enough to make it worthwhile. Pickford's character was something of a change-of-pace for her, in that many of the character's problems here are simply her own fault, not the result of circumstance. There is also more silly humor than you expect from Mary, but then there are some better comedy sequences that she pulls off as well as ever.

The story has Pickford as Amanda, a day-dreamer working in a hand laundry, where the other employees see her as a ridiculous romantic at best, and an inept nuisance at worst. The plot is carried in part by her far-fetched fantasies, and in part by her efforts to help out the old horse who pulls the laundry's delivery cart. Most of the scenes hold up well enough on their own, but as a whole it never really seems to get off the ground. Fortunately, Mary could make even the most negligible material seem watchable, so most of it works all right, and there are a couple of very good sequences. With a lesser star, it probably would have fallen apart, and overall it probably gets about as much as it could have from the material.