Little Lord Fauntleroy is Mary Pickford playing both mother and son, a double role that showed her range and her understanding of a child’s view of the world.
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), directed by Alfred E. Green and based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, stars Pickford as Cedric Errol, a young American boy who learns he is heir to an English earldom, and also as his widowed mother Dearest. Cedric must win over his stern grandfather, the Earl, while his mother is kept at a distance.
Pickford’s double performance is the film’s centre. As Cedric she is open, kind and unspoiled, and as Dearest she is dignified and loving, and the two performances do not blur. The film’s charm comes from Cedric’s innocence meeting the Earl’s pride, and Pickford makes both sides believable.
It is a signature role because it is Pickford at the height of her silent-film fame, carrying a beloved story almost alone, in two roles at once.