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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_poor_little_rich_girl.jpg]]
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4''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' is a 1917 film directed by Maurice Tourneur and featuring one of the biggest movie stars of her day, "America's Sweetheart", Creator/MaryPickford. Here Pickford plays Gwendolyn, the neglected 11-year-old daughter of a high-society couple. The father is too busy trading stocks and the mother is busy improving her social standing, and neither of them pay attention to their little girl. Gwen is left to the care of the servants, who are quite mean and seem to delight in tormenting her. In return she acts out, one time throwing her fancy dresses into the street and another time wrecking a bathroom sink. Nothing succeeds in getting her parents to spend some time with her--that is, not until an abusive maid gives Gwen an overdose of a sleeping drug.
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6''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' was a smash hit and maintained Pickford's status as a huge movie star, probably the biggest of her day (her friend Creator/CharlieChaplin was her only real competition). It was one of the first of the DawsonCasting roles that she would later become strongly associated with (Pickford was 24 when the film was released). It was selected to the UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry as typical of Pickford's work.
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8It's also very, very {{Anvilicious}}--pay attention to your kids, people!
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10It was later remade with Creator/ShirleyTemple as "Poor Little Rich Girl" (without the "The").
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13!!Tropes:
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15* AdventuresInComaland: After the maid gives Gwen the overdose, Gwen slips into a long dream sequence in which the people she knows manifest themselves in odd ways. For example, the bitchy maid and kindly butler call each other "a silly ass" and "two-faced" respectively, so the maid shows up in the dream having literally two faces and the butler is dressed up as a donkey. Eventually, she meets TheGrimReaper--interestingly, here portrayed as a woman--who promises her "eternal sleep". Gwen nearly takes her up on it until a playful [[FairyCompanion fairy spirit]] who seems to be the Grim Reaper's [[EvilCounterpart Good Counterpart]] lures Gwen back to life. She then wakes up.
16* BrokenGlassPenalty: The neighborhood kids hit a baseball through the glass of Gwen's family's greenhouse. They go to retrieve it and wind up having a mud fight with Gwen.
17* ClosedDoorRapport: Another society lady brings her daughter around to play with Gwen, but it goes bad when Gwen and the other girl take an instant dislike to each other. The scene ends with Gwen locking herself in her room and saying "I hate her, I hate her, I hate her".
18* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When Gwen is caught having a mud fight with boys, she is forced to wear boy's clothes for the rest of the day. Although [[{{Unishment}} Gwen doesn't really consider this a punishment]] and she ends up having a lot of fun in a mud fight as OneOfTheBoys.
19* ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt: "Wuxtra! Wuxtra! Panic in Wall St.!" Exposition indicating that the father's stock market position is suffering.
20* ForcedPerspective: Pickford was just a hair over five feet tall. To make her look even smaller, they used forced perspective with the other actors, and also built some over-sized furniture and other props.
21* FunWithSubtitles: In the scene where Gwen is locked in her room yelling "I hate her, I hate her", the words "I HATE HER" are actually shown coming through the keyhole.
22* TheGrimReaper: See AdventuresInComaland above.
23* ImagineSpot: Gwen is prone to these. When someone calls the bitchy maid a "snake in the grass", Gwen visualizes the maid in costume [[LiteralMetaphor as a snake, in the grass]].
24* ImpairmentShot: When Gwen is staggering down the stairs after being overdosed with a sleeping drug, the camera shot starts tilting sharply to right and left.
25* {{Jerkass}}: Literally all the servants torment Gwen. Also they pull a KarmaHoudini, since they never get called out for this.
26* LonelyRichKid: Played completely straight, with Gwen shut up in her parents' mansion, not allowed to go out and play with the commoners. She can't even ''watch'' the local kids play, as the bitchy maid pulls down the blinds when she does.
27* OrganGrinder: Sans monkey, in this instance. A lonely Gwen hears him playing outside and brings him into the mansion. The servants, naturally, go nuts.
28* ParentalNeglect: Both parents are so involved in their own lives, they hardly notice their daughter.
29* RegalRinglets: Mary Pickford's standard hairstyle, as usual signifying her sweetness and innocence.
30* RhymesOnADime: TheGrimReaper and her good fairy counterpart from the coma sequence both talk in rhyme.
31* RichBitch: Contrasting Gwen's sweet and innocent wondrous nature, we have another rich girl known as Susie May who would insult Gwen's house and parents for no proper reason, act like she was bitten when she was just slapped, freak out over getting her clothes stained, etc.
32* SadistTeacher: Gwen's home tutors.
33* SpoiledBrat: The socialite's daughter Gwen is forced to play with. Averted with Gwen herself.
34* TitleDrop: Gwen is called "the poor little rich girl" several times in the title cards. Weirdly, both the neighborhood kids and Gwen herself call her that in-universe.

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