Daddy Long Legs on AllMovie

This first of several cinematic adaptations of the Jean Webster play Daddy Long Legs stars "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford. The oldest and cutest of a group of orphans, Pickford is provided with funds for her education and well-being by a mysterious benefactor, whom she knows only as "Daddy Long Legs" because of the spider-like shadow he casts on the orphanage steps. Upon reaching a marriageable age, Pickford falls in love with handsome Mahlon Hamilton, never dreaming that he and Daddy Long Legs are one in the same. When he proposes marriage, she properly announces that she'll need her guardian's consent, and thus the stage is set for the film's conclusion. Like several of Mary Pickford's best silent films, Daddy Long Legs was remade in the talkie era by Shirley Temple (as 1935's Curly Top).