Co-directed by Edwin S. Porter and J. Searle Dawley, this Pygmalion-inspired melodrama was Mary Pickford's second feature film to be released by Famous Players-Lasky. "America's Sweetheart" played Mercy Baxter, an innocent mountain girl who is accidentally shot and wounded by Jack Henderson (Owen Moore, "Mr. Pickford" in real life). Nursing her back to health, Henderson comes to love the girl, who he marries against his father's (James Gordon) wishes. When all efforts to turn the "wild" mountain girl into a proper wife fail, Mercy is sent back to her mountains. A bit later, Henderson's sister (Boots Wall) returns from boarding school with glowing reports of a certain Miss Wheeler. Jack is intrigued, and to his delight the redoubtable Miss Wheeler turns out to be none other than Mercy Baxter, to whom he is still married. Mary Pickford was taken seriously ill during the filming of Caprice, a result, it was rumored, of a botched abortion. In 1916, William Fox attempted to turn the 17-year-old June Caprice into a new Mary Pickford. One of the vehicles chosen was Caprice of the Mountains (1916), which despite the similar title doesn't seem to have been a direct remake of the Mary Pickford film. Needless to say, Miss Caprice proved no real threat to "Our Mary" in the long run.
by Hans J. Wollstein
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