Coquette is Mary Pickford’s first talking picture and her Academy Award-winning role, as a flirtatious Southern girl whose romance defies her father’s wishes.
Coquette (1929), directed by Sam Taylor and based on a play by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers, stars Pickford as Norma Besant, a young woman in the American South who falls in love with a man her father disapproves of. The film follows Norma’s defiance, her father’s anger and the tragic consequences of their conflict.
Pickford’s Norma is a deliberate break from her silent child roles. She is adult, romantic and wilful, and Pickford, who cut her famous curls for the part, plays her with a new directness suited to sound. Her voice, clear and confident, helped audiences accept her in a grown-up role.
The performance won Pickford the Academy Award for Best Actress. Coquette is a signature role because it marks Pickford’s passage into talking pictures, and her determination to grow with the medium she had helped to create.