This is by far the best performance Mary Pickford gave in a talking film; in fact, it is one that needs no apologies from anyone for it. If she was a bit too old for the early scenes, well so was Leslie Howard (actually he and Pickford were the same age, but nobody seems to mention him in this respect), she still carried them off very well and, indeed, if you didn't already know she was 40 at the time from outside sources, you really would not know it while viewing the film.The film suffers badly from a lack of continuity. All kinds of things appear to have happened at various stages of the story - most especially the husband's adultery - and we never know it until someone comes upon the scene and practically bellows it forth - but as others have said, this film is very much in the tradition of the old three-act play, where one act may not have very much to do with what comes before or after that act, especially when encompassing a half-century of story. Anyway, it does appear that an entire film might have been structured out of all the important story lines pretty much left out of this one. Still, old-fashioned or not, it holds the interest throughout, played first for comedy, then for drama and tragedy, and finally for pure sentiment, and both Pickford and Howard are perfect throughout the fifty years the story covers.James Agee, a film critic many consider a great one (I do not, but will hypocritically reference him here when it suits my purposes) made one of his most memorable comments on acting when, in reviewing moments of John Wayne's trek across the parched desert holding a newborn baby in his arms, determined to save its life because of a promise he made to the baby's dying mother, a total stranger to him (THREE GODFATHERS, 1949), he said that you could read pages out of all the great acting manuals and never begin to describe what Wayne achieves in those moments, and that constitutes great screen acting. That came to mind immediately in the scene of the cattle rustlers' attack on the Howard/Pickford home in this film, one that results (without our realizing it at first) in the death of their infant baby. The scene of Mary finding the baby, thinking it is asleep, slowly realizing it is not breathing, sitting down drained of every emotion except grief, suddenly getting an idea and going over to get a face mirror to bring back, put in front of the baby's mouth in the hope that she is wrong and that it is still breathing, the ultimate realization that her child is indeed dead, her combination of both stoical and expressed grief, and then her placing her baby back in its crib and going through the door into the next room to help load ammunition for her husband's continuing fight against the rustlers, must be one of the greatest 'silent' acting moments in the history of the screen, and it should be shown in acting classes to demonstrate what silent acting, even in a talkie, could encompass. Just wonderful!

Today ,I'm still wondering how Frank Borzage could make so many wonderful movies for so many years !Think of it!"Secrets" came after "A farewell to the arms" and just before "a man's castle" followed by "no greater glory" and "little man what now?"!And there were plenty of masterpieces in the silent era and there were so many to come afterward.Who can compete with him?I'd like to know! "Secrets" is more of the same : the lovers against the hostile world,two lovers who will "see it through for their love is true".It is composed of three parts ,apparently disparate ,but when the movie is over ,you feel it's a seamless whole ,mainly after the old folks want to be alone to share their secrets .First part displays echoes of Romeo and Juliet ,complete with ladder ,a bourgeois family and a romantic escape;in the second part ,Borzage shows us the heroine in a less comfortable house where drama gives way to tragedy:this scene in which Mary Pickford is holding her dead child is one of these heartrending moments which abound in Borzage's canon : other examples can be found in "no greater glory" when they carry the dead little soldier home or in "the mortal storm" ,when James Stewart holds Margaret Sullavan's body or in "young America" this drawing which shows the two boys flying.The last third can seem weaker by comparison but further acquaintance shows this: Borzage had already anticipated the future and its great sagas/serials which appeared in the fifties :and he made this in about 40 minutes whereas the others would take two or three hours.Borzage was certainly equaled,but never surpassed.

This movie is like three one-act plays -- the Mary Pickford and Leslie Howard characters appear in all three of them, but it doesn't add up to a cohesive story with believable character development.The opening act is played broadly. Mary P. is too old for the part -- certainly too old to play C. Aubrey Smith's daughter! And she plays the entire movie on the same note.The middle section is a Western. Leslie Howard isn't a likely cattle rancher.The final segment leaps the story forward by 20-some years -- much has happened to the characters, but we didn't get to see any of it.All in all, not much to recommend.

An odd film, but it has several terrific moments thanks to the great Mary Pickford.She plays a sheltered New England girl who runs off with Leslie Howard rather than marry the stuffy Englishman her father has picked out for her. We see the couple trek across the country in a covered wagon and set up ranching in California, and finally we see Howard run for political office. The film covers 50 years of their lives together, all in 3 acts (as was done on the Broadway stage).The film is uneven but Pickford gives a tremendous performance in her final film. She's very funny in the undressing scene before the elopement and she has an Oscar-worthy moment in the final scene where they are being attacked by cattle rustlers. Truly remarkable. Howard is also very good.Co-stars include C. Aubrey Smith, Ned Sparks, Blanche Frederici, Doris Lloyd, and Mona Maris.Pickford's talkie career was brief and not very successful despite her Oscar win for COQUETTE. But she is excellent in this film and also in KIKI.