Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the 1903 novel of the same name by Kate Douglas Wiggin. This version is notable for having been adapted by famed female screenwriter Frances Marion. The film was made by the "Mary Pickford Company" and was an acclaimed box office hit. When the play premiered on Broadway in the 1910 theater season the part of Rebecca was played by Edith Taliaferro.
As described in a film magazine, Rebecca Randall (Pickford) is taken into the home of her aunt Hannah (Eddy), a strict New England woman. Rebecca meets Adam Ladd (O'Brien), a young man of the village, and they become great friends. One day Rebecca promises to marry Adam when she becomes of age. Unable to withstand her pranks any longer, her aunt sends her away to a boarding school. She graduates a beautiful young lady. Shortly thereafter, Adam demands a fulfillment of her promise.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was filmed in Pleasanton, California. Additional scenes were also filmed at the Hunsucker Ranch in Scotts Valley, California, which was chosen for its New England-style farm setting.
The Hunsucker Ranch was a popular filming location during the silent film era and was later used for the 1931 film Way Back Home, starring Seth Parker, and the 1934 MGM film Hide-Out, starring Robert Montgomery and Maureen OâÂÂSullivan.
Like many American films of the time, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of the intertitle "I have just learned the Simpsons are not married."
Acknowledging that Rebecca was a âÂÂhuge hit.âÂÂ, biographer Jeanine Basinger observes that âÂÂToday, when an excerpt is chosen as a typical Mary Pickford scene, itâÂÂs often one from this film.â Basinger continues:
Basinger adds that, by 1917, moviegoers favored the then 25-year-old Pickford âÂÂwhen she pretended to be a little girlâ in her character portrayals.