Silent Sundays: The Danger Girl (1916)

The Danger Girl is a very nice short twenty minute silent film that can literally be summed up in one sentence. But I would like this review to be somewhat substantial to I will write a summary to the best of my abilities. I say “best to my abilities” because by the time I had gotten around to watching The Danger Girl I had gotten up early today and by the time I watched this film I had already watched two other silent films and I was getting pretty tired. I kind of got the plot as I was watching it so here goes a somewhat coherent summary.

            A girl has just kicked her boyfriend Reggie out of her apartment after a fight. Reggie sees A Worldly Woman out on the street ready to go for a horseback ride. He figures his girlfriend is made at him and it does not matter if he goes for a ride with other woman. His girlfriend comes out to apologize but she does so too late and sees Reggie riding away with the Worldly Woman.

            Reggie and the Woman are out riding on a remote road in the woods. Well, the road is not remote enough as a speeding driven by the Danger Girl (Gloria Swanson) comes racing around. Reggie had thrown his horse’s shoe on the ground and the car runs over it giving it a flat tire. The Danger Girl and her boyfriend Bobby get out of the car. Bobby immediately goes and flirts with the Worldly Woman while the Danger Girl gets her overalls on and fixes the flat. When she is done she sees Bobby talking to the other woman and takes off in the car without him. Bobby was hoping to get a ride from the Worldly Woman but she just takes off leaving him to walk the rest of the way.

            The Danger Girl is the sister of Reggie’s girlfriend and she has come to stay for a while. That night they got to a party. The Danger Girl sees Bobby trying to flirt with the Woman of the World and she gets an idea to lure him away. She disguises herself as a man vying for the other woman’s attention.

            After this party scene I lost focus and the rest of the story is a bit muddled to me. But hey, the film is only twenty minutes long if you have twenty minutes to spare go watch it to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

            I did not get bored with The Danger Girl. As I said I was tired and I had just watched two other silent films before this. Have you ever tried watching three silent films in a row before? It ain’t easy! What I was able to focus on for this film was very good. I like Gloria Swanson. It is always interesting to watch her early films before the 1920s when she was still a teenager. The woman could act the hell out of anything she was in she was so brilliant. You can see she must have had a good time making this because her acting was very good and her scenes where she dressed up as a man were perfect. I find it funny that people were mistaking or thinking Swanson for a man in this film because she had such a feminine face and these intensely gorgeous blue eyes. The plot has to move along somehow and her feminine looks were never brought into question. The Danger Girl is a good short silent film that I recommend watching. I actually would not mind watching it again. 

Silent Sundays: Shifting Sands (1918)

“I wonder if people like him ever know we are alive.”

            Gloria Swanson starred in Sadie Thompson the first silent film I ever sat through and is now one of my all time favorite films (and one of the reasons this blog exists). Ever since then I have seen plenty of silent films including Beyond the Rocks and Why Change Your Wife? also starring Swanson. Neither of those two films of hers were very good. The latest film I have seen of hers is Shifting Sands. Even though it gets a bit overdramatic and silly it was better than the other ones.

            Marcia Grey (Swanson) is a young painter who mostly paints out of unrest than talent. In a store one day she meets John King who is in the store with his mother. Marcia tries to sell one of her paintings. The owner tells her the work is alright but not the best he will see what he can do. John is standing outside when Marcia walks out. He goes back into the store to look at her painting.

            John comes from a wealthy family. He devotes his time trying to help the poor. His latest project is improving a tenement building. The building happens to be the one that Marcia lives in with her sister. Marcia’s sister Cora is very sick and they have been unable to pay their rent. The landlord comes up to speak to Marcia. She pleads with him to wait a few more days until she can come up with the money. The landlord sees Marcia’s paintings and tells her she is foolish she will never make a living painting. The landlord attacks Marcia trying to kiss her until she picks something up and threatens to hit him with it. The greasy man gets the police to come. Before the police arrive Marcia finds the man’s wallet on the floor and she has it in her hand when the police come in. The landlord further accuses her of stealing from him. In court the following day no one believes Marcia’s story and she is sentenced to a prison island for ninety days. A woman comes to speak to Marcia in a holding room. The woman wants to do something for Marcia. Marcia tells the woman about Cora and asks if she can check on her sister. Unfortunately Cora dies.

            When Marcia is released she sees a woman place a baby outside a doorstep. Marcia takes the baby to the Salvation Army. She tells one of the ladies that she has no place to go. The lady tells her she can stay as one of the workers. One day John shows up at the Salvation Army and sees Marcia. He remembers her from the store. He tells her that all the children are invited up to his country home for a picnic. At the house John tells Marcia that he has loved her ever since he first saw her.

            Five years later John and Marcia are married with a son. John’s mother does not like Marcia because John married got married against her advice and says that one day he will regret it. A man comes to the house claiming to be a friend of a friend of John’s. The man claims to call his valet when in reality he calls some other men and says that he is in the house and that they are to come immediately. There is something about the man that Marcia does not like. Later that evening she realizes the man is her former landlord in disguise.

            Marcia sees the landlord steal some papers. He threatens to blackmail her and tell John what she has gone through if she tells. The mother sees Marcia speaking to the landlord and she tells John. He walks into the room but does not see anything suspicious. That night Marcia leaves with the landlord she does not want the papers out of her sight. The mother looks out her window to see Marcia running away with the landlord. She runs to her son with what she has seen and that he should go after Marcia to avoid scandal.

             The landlord has taken Marcia to a basement somewhere in the city. When the men open the papers they see that they are blank. She tells them that she would not betray her husband. One of the men wants to have her killed because she has seen and heard too much. John goes to the police to have them help find Marcia. His friend is head of the justice department and tells John to come along with him and a few men. The men Marcia is with want her to write a letter to John about the papers or she will never be able to go home. John and the police storm into the basement. The friend tells John that he had some engravings planted in their house to get the counterfeiters and that Marcia wanted to help.

            Shifting Sands was not too terrible and it was perfectly short at forty-five minutes. The story starts off well and just ends in a really did that seriously just happen? Gloria Swanson was only nineteen when she made this and it just before she began working with Cecil B. DeMille so it is not one of her strongest films. She did a great job I definitely liked this silent better than Beyond the Rocks and Why Change Your Wife. The melodramatic-ness of the story kind of took away from Swanson’s acting ability. I just have to say that she looked gorgeous. Shifting Sands is worth watching only if you really like Gloria Swanson. 

Silent Sundays: Why Change Your Wife (1920)

“When a woman meets her ex-husband she realizes all she has lost: when she meets the wife she realizes all he has lost”

            Why Change Your Wife? is the first silent film I have seen from Cecil B. DeMille. I hate to say I was expecting a better film after seeing some his later more popular films. I was also expecting a bit better because Gloria Swanson is the star and she was one of the biggest things in the silent era. The film was not totally awful it had its moments that were funny and interesting.

            Robert Gordon has been married to Beth (Swanson). Beth “gladly gave up her husband’s liberty when she married him.” The poor man is trying to shave and she just keeps bothering him. In fact Beth just bothers Robert. He tries to love her and wants her to be more of a woman rather than a dowdy one who is perfectly boring.

            One day Robert decides to buy Beth some risqué lingerie. He is embarrassed beyond belief seeing the models barely dressed. One of the models Sally Clark (Bebe Daniels) recognizes him from when she was younger back home. She puts on the most exotic of the lingerie dresses the store has as well as some exotic smelling perfume. Robert of course does not recognize her. He likes the way Sally looks in the negligee and orders one for Ruth. Sally is upset when she sees Robert write on the card “Mrs. Robert Gordon.”

            That night Robert tries to lighten the mood. He puts on a Fox Trot but Beth immediately walks over and puts an opera on. She does not want to dance with him she wants to listen to more cultivated music. The negligee comes. Robert tells Beth to put it on and come out when she is dressed. Beth in all her prudishness hates the negligee and does not want to come out. Robert is furious that she does not like it.

            The next day Robert gets tickets for a play in town. He calls Ruth to meet him in the city for dinner and the show. Ruth tells him she is having people over and some violin player will be there as well. He gets disgusted and tells her he will dine at his club that night and go to the show himself. After he hangs up Sally comes in. The store forgot to include a piece of the negligee in the box and has brought the piece. Robert takes Sally out to the show and to dinner. After the show he goes back to her apartment. They talk and listen to the latest music on her record player.

            Beth tries to wait up for Robert to come home. He had kissed Sally before he left and feels guilty for doing so. Beth wakes up when he gets home. He tells her he went out with a friend. She smells Sally’s perfume on him. The next morning Robert leaves. He tells Beth he wanted to marry a sweetheart not a judge and to live in a home not a convent.

            On the day the divorce goes through Beth goes out dress shopping with her aunt. Beth overhears two of the shop girls talk about her how she dressed more like Robert’s aunt than his wife and did not play with him like she should have and he wanted her to. Beth gets furious and rips up all her old clothes. She wants all her clothes to be indecent now.

            Robert marries Sally. He is stuck in the same pattern with Sally. He tries to shave without ripping his throat open and his wife is right there bothering him. Sally asks him to take her on vacation to Atlantic City for a few days. They get to the hotel and they see men flocking around a woman. Robert comes to find the woman all the men are breaking their necks to get a look at is Beth. She has had a great make over both physically and in attitude. All that night and the rest of the vacation his mind is on his former wife.

            To make a ridiculously long story short Robert and Beth do get back together and do get remarried.

            Gloria Swanson was twenty-one when she made this film. She looked stunning. Even as the frumpy wife at the beginning she just captures your attention and does not let go. I loved the scene where Beth realizes she needed to change. Swanson played that very well. Bebe Daniels was alright. I liked her more at the beginning of the film than throughout the rest.

            Why Change Your Wife? was alright. I got bored with it pretty quick. I really liked seeing all the clothes it is fascinating to see what was fashionable in the 1920s (and come on who does not like the style of the 1920s?). DeMille’s direction is nothing to write home about. The title cards were are worth a ton mentions. They were hysterical and extremely witty. Why Change Your Wife? is worth seeing at least once. It is available to view on Youtube. 

Silent Sundays: Beyond the Rocks (1922)

There are hundreds of silent films that are sadly considered “lost”- lost as in missing or completely destroyed. This is a shame but unfortunately due to age many silent films have deteriorated due to the nitrate the film was made of and begin improperly stored. But every few years a film miracle happens and a once considered lost film is found in storage in a foreign country. For decades Beyond the Rocks starring two of silent cinema’s biggest idols Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson was one of those lost films. In 2003 a print of the film was found in the Netherlands in a private collection and was restored by the Nederlands Filmmuseum. This was a huge find especially because it was the only film Valentino and Swanson ever made together. Unfortunately the plot is not good at all.

            The story is about a young woman named Theodora Fitzgerald (Swanson). Her father and two spinster step-sisters come from a line of aristocrats but they do not have the wealth the family used to have. The sisters do not do anything for themselves; they plan on Theodora to marry rich so she can take care of them and their father.

            Theodora was out on the water in a small boat when it capsizes. A young man on a yacht sees her go over and he jumps in the water to save her. Her father sees her and is very grateful. The young man is Lord Hector Bracondale (Valentino) a rich playboy from England. There is a spark between Hector and Theodora when they talk on shore. As a sign of thanks and a bit of flirting Theodora gives Hector a narcissus flower from her dress. The sisters say amongst themselves that Hector is no good for their sister because he has so much money he just does whatever he wants.

            The sisters have Theodora marry a rich old millionaire named Josiah Brown. She is not happy and her father is the only who cares he tells her that she does not have to go through with the marriage. But Theodora loves her father so much that she cannot let him down. The honeymoon does not go over so well, Josiah gets altitude sickness in Alps and cannot do much with Theodora. At dinner one night Theodora drops her handkerchief near a table. It drops right behind the table that Hector just so happens to be sitting at. The waiter picks it up thinking it belongs to Hector’s mother or sister. When he takes it he can smell narcissus perfume on it and when he turns around he sees Theodora.

            The next day while hiking in the mountains Theodora falls over the edge and is literally hanging by a rope. Hector happens to save her again and their romance is rekindled. As time goes on their romance is tortured between love and duty. Theodora feels awful about being unfaithful to Josiah but Hector wants to constantly be in her presence. The one step-sister finds out what Theodora is doing with Hector and Josiah. She send Theodora’s letter to Josiah to Hector and vice versa. Josiah sees that she really does not love him which breaks his heart but he understands because she is young. He decides to go on an expedition to Egypt that could be fatal.

            If you have to even guess what happens then you must never have seen or read a love story.

            The story was very, very dull. It is like a story out of one of my grandma’s cheesy romance novels, it is a soap opera to the full extent. I like a good love story but it was too dragged out the film could have been finished in a shorter time even though it is only an hour and twenty-eight minutes long. The film starts out well I like it a lot but once Theodora marries Josiah my attention span was spent.

            Theodora Fitzgerald was not one of Gloria Swanson’s finest characters. Swanson’s performance seemed so wooden, so stiff. That is all I can really say about the character and Swanson’s performance. But at the same time I was happy to see another of her silents besides Sadie Thompson (I know she has made better than Beyond the Rocks and I am currently looking for some). Swanson was stunningly beautiful. If I was Hector I would not be able to forget her face either!(and to think she was only twenty-three years old!!) Valentino I have never seen in a film before. I actually liked his performance. I felt so bad for Hector because he was so truly and madly in love with her and could not be with her. I can see why women swooned over Valentino he was very handsome in a certain way. Unfortunately there is absolutely no chemistry between Valentino and Gloria Swanson which greatly affects the storyline making it unbelievable that their characters are so in love with each other it is torturous.

            The only character that I liked was Hector’s sister Anna. The actress June Elvidge was the cast member to turn in a good performance even though she has only one decent sized scene. Hector tells her that he is love and the title card tells us that Anna knows he is telling the truth because the way he is telling her about Theodora is different from all the other times. You can see it on her face that she believes her brother and encourages him.

               There are two very good scenes despite its dullness: while at Versailles Hector tells Theodora about the gallants who used to come to the palace and seduce the women. As he tells the story they imagine they are back in the times of Louis XIV. While in the desert in Egypt Josiah's men find a scroll stating the punishment for women who were unfaithful to their husbands and he imagines Theodora in Egyptian dress being punished. The scenes were beautiful especially the Egyptian one. 

            Beyond the Rocks is a miracle film simply because it was once considered lost and was found. But other than its rediscovery there is no other miracle attached to it. The story is boring and the characters are not good. I can only recommend a viewing Beyond the Rocks because of its history and maybe to see Valentino and Gloria Swanson in their only film together