Sparrows

A farm in the middle of a swamp that nobody knows about. The Grimes family take in unwanted children and work them in the fields. Molly is the eldest; she looks after the others, tells them stories at night, takes the beatings for them. One day Grimes kidnaps a baby for ransom. When the police get close he decides to throw the child into the swamp. Molly takes all the children and runs. The way out goes through the swamp, and there are alligators in it. William Beaudine directs the silent film; ninety-four minutes, with Mary Pickford as Molly, one of the films she produced herself. The swamp was built on a studio lot and the alligators were real. Pickford was in her mid-thirties and still playing young girls on screen; this film belongs to that stretch of her career.