Silent Sundays: Suds (1920)

Years and years ago when I worked in retail, in my boredom I would imagine some hot guy would come in and ask for my help and I would try to get my flirt on. That actually did happen once or twice but the flirting never lead to anything serious and I never saw the guys again (unfortunately). But that fantastical thinking kept my ADHD riddled brain entertained every once in a while to take my mind off of hating my job and all the customers (that was just one fantasy thought I had. Usually it was about finishing college and getting a real job or working in the movies one day). It was a lot of fun watching the silent film Suds because the main character had a very active and hilarious imagination that keeps her going working in a laundry.

            At a French Laundry in the heart of London works a young woman named Amanda Afflick (Mary Pickford). Amanda does not a lot of the work the other women do because she is smaller than they are. The women also think Amanda is a little nuts because she keeps saying that a man named Horace Greensmith who left his laundry there eight months ago will come back and take her away because he loves her.

            Amanda is sent to return laundry to a customer. She is carrying a large basket on her head when it comes tumbling over and into the street and becomes completely dirty. The owner of the laundry is furious with Amanda and makes her stay in the shop all night to re-clean and iron everything. The night in the basement store is scary with sounds she has never heard and things she has never seen.

            In the morning all the other women come back into the shop. They see she has Horace Greensmith’s shirt and they immediately start making fun of her. She gets fed up with their ridicule and creates a wild story about how she is actually a duchess and the only reason she is working in the shop is because her father found out she was seeing Horace and kicked her out. Now she is waiting for Horace to come back for her. The real Horace Greensmith finally returns to the shop after eight months and a few days away. Amanda jumps into his arms in excitement. Horace has no idea who Amanda is and she tells him to just go with it until the other women leave the shop for the day. When the women do leave Amanda is finally alone with the object of her desire. Horace says that he lives in a mansion and that he can take her there. But then once he gets a real look at Amanda he decides to take her somewhere else and Amanda realizes then that Horace does not really like her.

            Throughout the story with Amanda dreaming about Horace Greensmith and creating her imaginary backstory is the story about a boy named Benjamin who works for the laundry as a delivery boy and his horse named Lavender. Lavender is an old horse that cannot do very much anymore. Benjamin defends Lavender to fullest every time the owner of the laundry threatens to take the horse to the glue factory. Unfortunately, one-day Lavender manages to destroy all the clean laundry. The owner has had enough of the horse and sends it to the glue factory. Benjamin tells Amanda what has happened to the horse and she takes it upon herself to save Lavender. She rescues the horse and takes it back to her apartment. That does not go over very well with her neighbors or landlord and she has to take the horse out of the house. Luckily for Amanda a wealthy lady was doing her charity rounds of the neighborhood and came upon Lavender. She makes a deal with Amanda to have Lavender brought to her estate to live out the rest of his days. All of this took place in front of the laundry where all the women to see. When they ask Amanda who the old lady was she tells them the woman was her aunt and thus began the reason why she told them all the story of how she was kicked out of her home by her father.

            Later on Amanda is asked by the wealthy lady to come work for her as a maid. Amanda finds Horace actually works on the estate and they fall in love with each other.

            Suds is a silent film I have been wanting to watch for a few years now ever since I started watching Mary Pickford’s films. I liked it a lot. I thought it was very cute and funny. Pickford was so fantastic with her comedy. I think Suds proved that Pickford was willing to do anything for a laugh and to create a good performance because Amanda was a really horrid looking person. Pickford did not look like the adorable little girls or young women she usually played she looked like a woman who has never seen a brush or eyebrow tweezer. I enjoyed Suds a lot because I can relate to Amanda working in a crappy place and creating these imaginative scenarios to keep her going. Suds is a silent film I highly recommend take the time to watch. It is currently available to view on YouTube in full. 

Silent Sundays: Tess of the Storm Country (1922)

“Nearly two thousand years ago from a hill-top in Judea came the sublime command: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ But his philosophy of the Great Teacher is often preached where never practiced- and sometimes practiced where never preached.”

            A while back I reviewed the first silent version of Tess of the Storm Country from 1914 that also starred Mary Pickford. Sometimes with remakes I am curious to see the differences such as what was taken away from the original or what has been added to the original. With this 1922 version of Tess of the Storm Country I was interested to see what had been added and how Mary Pickford acted in this updated silent. Much was added and made better.

            For those of you who are reading this review I will once again write up a summary of the film.

            The story begins with Elias Graves who has built a mansion on a hilltop overlooking the water. Down by the shore is a squatters’ village. Elias can do nothing to kick them off the land due to squatters’ rights. His daughter Teola is seeing a young man named Dan Jordan who is studying to be a lawyer. Elias does not care for Dan too much so Teola tells Dan that he must come up with an idea to get rid of the squatters to be in her father’s favor. Dan comes up the idea to call in official wildlife gamers to remove the nets the squatters use to fish and make their living. Without the nets the squatters will have no way of making money and will have to move on.

            Living in the squatters’ village is Tess Skinner (Pickford) and her father. All the squatters are happy with their lives and live peacefully. Only one man named Ben makes trouble. He is hell bent on marrying Tess and will do whatever it takes to make that happen. One day Elias sends his son Frederick down to the squatters’ village to take care of things. Frederick does not mind the squatters he does not agree with his father’s views of them. But he does go down to the village and is almost immediately attacked by Tess. Frederick likes Tess besides being attacked. He tells her if she were to clean up she would be pretty. Frederick makes a return visit because he likes Tess.

            Dan goes down to the village with the gamers to take away the nets. Some of the villagers fight with the gamers and Dan. Tess sees what is happening and runs out to grab her father’s nets. She tries to hide them in the mattress but one of the pieces of the net comes out and Dan sees it. He tells one of the gamers but he says to way so they can catch Tess’s father in the act of using it.

            Sometime later the people of the village are starving without their main source of income. Tess’s father decides to take his net out to fish. For some reason he takes his shot gun with him. Dan and some of the gamers come to the water once they are informed that Skinner is going out to fish. Dan goes down to the water and is shot by Ben who just so happened to get Skinner’s gun. Elias is convinced that Skinner is the one that killed Dan and has him thrown in jail. Teola is beyond heartbroken and sick with worry now that Dan is dead because she is having his baby out of wedlock.

            Frederick loves Tess. He gives her reading lessons before he is to go away to college. He tells her that once he is done with college he wants to come back and marry her. Teola, meanwhile, is in a great state. She believed her father would be away on business for several months. When she learns that he is coming home early she is terrified of what he would do to her if he found out about her condition. Teola walks to the edge of the water to kill herself. She slips and falls in. Fortunately, Tess was there to save Teola and takes her back to her shack. The next morning Teola has her baby. She is still worried about her father finding out about the baby. Tess says she will take care of the baby and not tell anyone it is her’s. Everyday Teola comes back to visit her son. It is not long before the baby becomes very sick.

            Ben sees Tess walking down the road and goes to grab her to take her away. He is still determined to marry her and now since her dad has been sentenced for the murder of Dan he sees it as a perfect opportunity for her to marry him. Tess refuses and manages to get away from the huge brute but he throws a rock at her head and knocks her out. Before he had gone away Frederick gave Tess his dog to look out for her and the dog attacks Ben allowing Tess to truly get away and be free.

            One winter stormy night, Frederick comes back for winter break. The first thing he wants to do is see Tess. He races to her shack. He comes in to find Teola there with Tess. He hears the baby crying. Tess says that she found the baby is taking care of it. Teola yells at her brother to not question Tess anymore. Frederick thinks he figures out the baby is really Tess’s and he is heartbroken and does not want to speak to her anymore. Again Tess becomes very fortunate that Frederick is in her life. Ben comes around to the shack not long after Frederick found Tess with the baby. Ben is looking to take Tess away still and will do so through any means necessary. Frederick found out that Ben is really the killer after another man in the village confessed to the police that he was with Ben when he shot Dan Jordan. He came to tell Tess that her father is free and that Ben is really the killer. Ben and Frederick get into a huge brawl but Tess was there with a chair to Ben’s head to knock him out and tie him up for the police. 

            That Sunday Tess is informed by the squatters’ doctor that the baby is dying. Tess is concerned that the baby has not been baptized and if he is not he will not be able to meet God. She takes him to the church to try to have the priest baptize the baby. The Graves are at church in the front row. Elias is furious that Tess is there and says that Tess being there is a disrespect to the other women in the church. Since the priest will not baptize the baby Tess performs her own ceremony with some holy water. Moved by seeing the baby and what Tess has done for her Teola out loud tells Tess to give her the baby. The whole church is shocked and Elias sits down in shame and sadness. The poor baby dies. Elias seeing how distraught his daughter is and how he did not know goes over to her and hugs her. When Tess returns home her father is there waiting for her.

            Out of grief Teola dies. Elias wants to thank Tess for all he did for his daughter. He realizes how truly wrong he was of her and the squatters. He signs the land over the squatters. The story ends with Elias and Frederick being forgiven and Tess and Frederick kissing.

            This version of Tess of the Storm Country was very good. What was left out of the original was good such as there being a woman in the village who had a baby out of wedlock. There were a few scenes and some of the story that was made longer which was not. Sometimes I feel that when a remade film is longer the story tends to drag but the story did not drag with the added forty-five minutes. Mary Pickford’s performance greatly improved. Not like her performance was terrible in the first version but in this version she was not over the top dramatic or overacted she was perfect. If you are a classic film buff and like silent films definitely check out both versions of Tess of the Storm Country from 1914 and 1922. Both are currently available in full to watch on YouTube. 

Silent Sundays: Tess of the Storm Country (1914)

          In this 1914 version of the story Tess of the Storm Country, Mary Pickford plays Tessibel “Tess” Skinner. Tess and her father live on a piece of land near a body water as squatters. They are poor but peaceful making a meager living net fishing. The wealthy land owner who’s land they squat on wants all the squatters to leave. Tess, through a local lawyer, finds out about squatters’ rights and they can all stay. The wealthy land owner, Elias Graves, is not happy about this. To get back at the squatters he has some environmental people come around and ban net fishing.

            Elias has a son named Frederick who studies at a theological school. They take a walk down by where the squatters are settled and there they meet Tess. Frederick likes Tess and she likes him. He comes back occasionally to see her when he his home from school.

            Another squatter is murdered and the blame is falsely placed on Tess’s father. She tries to prove he is a good man and a good father but that does not swing the jury who accuse him of the murder and send him to hang. After the sentencing Frederick comes around more to be with Tess. He feels awful about what happened to her father.

            Sometime later Frederick learns that Dan has been killed. In grief Frederick goes away for a while to get his mind off of his loss. Frederick has a sister named Teola. Teola had been in love with Dan and finds out that she is pregnant with his child out of wedlock. Teola likes and trusts Tess and stays with her until her baby is born. The baby stays with Tess since Teola’s family cannot know about what has happened.

            Of course there is then a mix up with Frederick and this no good squatter thinking the baby is Tess’s. Tess is a good friend and never reveals who the baby really belongs to. Towards the end of the story the baby becomes sick and is not going to survive very long. The baby has not been baptized so Tess tries to bring the baby to the church to be so. The priest is willing but Elias Graves is there and gets into an uproar about Tess being there thinking she is an unwed mother. Tess performs her own prayers on the baby. Teola is at church and breaks down and confesses that the baby is hers.

            Fredrick goes to see Tess later on. He tells Tess that his mother and father send their thanks and gratitude for watching over the baby and helping Teola and also that Teola has died. But the story does not end on a sad note. Fredrick and Tess share their first kiss.

            Tess of the Storm Country was a typical melodrama. It was not too bad. Seeing a twenty-one-year-old Mary Pickford play a feisty, strong character was great. She made Tess, and the whole film enjoyable to watch. Pickford would reprise her role of Tess Skinner eight years later in a remake of Tess of the Storm Country. This 1914 version is definitely worth seeing especially if you like Mary Pickford. The film is available to view in full on YouTube.