I left you off where Gloria was denied to work with Cecil B. DeMille at Famous Players-Lasky, due to petty lawyers at Triangle. Gloria is between one crappy picture and another, not satisfied with her position.
Between pictures with Albert Parker I made a picture called Station Content with a director named Arthur Hoyt. It was quite poor, but a masterpiece compared with the picture I made after Secret Code. The new film was called Wife or Country. IN it I was not only successfully tricked into spying for the enemy, I also had to pay for my wrongdoing by swallowing a bottle of poison.
[...]
I had to grin and bear it for a week and a half of overacted, overdirected, overpatriotic nonsense. Where do I go from here? I thought to myself as I swallowed the bottle of poison and lightning Hopper screamed "Perfect! Cut!"
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 100
Gloria Swanson, 1919.
The following morning the studio manager called and asked if he could come to the house in an hour and talk to me. I couldn't imagine what he meant, so I told Bea [a friend] not to leave. When he arrived, it was to announce that Triangle was facing bankruptcy.
"Does that mean you're closing the studio?" I asked.
"The studio has two months more to exercise its option," he explained. "But Mr. Aitken and his brother thought that you might want to get out of your contract immediately. That's why I'm here."
"Oh, they did, did they? After what they did to me?"
"The truth of the matter is, Miss Swanson, Mr. De Mille still wants you. He's tried several times to borrow you. His office called again yesterday."
"Why didn't anybody tell me?"
"There was no reason to make you more unhappy than you already were. If you like, I'll call Famous Players for you right now."
I showed him to the telephone. In five minutes he reappeared, saying, "Mr. Goodstadt is waiting to talk to you."
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 100
Gloria Swanson, 1919.
"Good morning, Miss Swanson, " Mr. Goodstadt said. "I think you should come right over if you can. By the time you get here, I'll have a chance to talk to Mr. De Mille. I know he's most anxious to replace his leading lady - if you're available, that is. You might bring the gentleman from Triangle along if he has a copy of your contract with him. I'd like to look it over."
The studio manager and I had nothing more to say to each other as he drove me to Sunset and Vine. What a difference, I thought, between Triangle, where they shot an entire picture, with retakes, in ten days, and Mr. De Mille, who could stop in the middle of a costly picture and change leading ladies.
Mr. Goodstadt was waiting for us in his office. "I talked to Mr. De Mille," he said. "He's delighted you're available. You can come in tomorrow morning at seven. Hattie will be waiting for you to do your hair."
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 101
Read about Gloria's first day under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille in part three - coming up!
Gloria Swanson and Cecil B. DeMille in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
"The public, not I, made Gloria Swanson a star."
That is Cecil B. DeMille's comment on the well known fact that it he that made a star out of Gloria Swanson. Wikipedia delivers embarrassingly few facts on their great collaboration:
Swanson moved to California in 1916 to appear in Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies opposite Bobby Vernon, and in 1919 she signed with Paramount Pictures and worked often with Cecil B. DeMille, who turned her into a romantic lead in such films as Don't Change Your Husband, Male and Female, The Affairs of Anatol, and Why Change Your Wife?
Thank you for that one. No, if we want the golden years of Gloria Swanson's career described to us in a little more juicy way, I think Gloria herself is the best one to ask.
I, with the help of Gloria Swanson's wonderfully detailed autobiography Swanson on Swanson (1980), will do a special on the DeMille-Swanson part of the motion picture history. And I will start from the beginning.
It was a few years ago now that I read Gloria Swanson's autobiography. Imagine my delight when I found it in the public library! I am nowadays, however, the proud owner of a 1981 First Pocket Book printing of the creation. (Okay, I bought on Amazon.com last year for $1.99, but still - invaluable to me! And with shipment to Sweden the prize was $14.48, so I guess that adds up.) If you haven't read it yet and will, you will also want to own the book - it is irreplacable.
But now, let's get started!
Gloria Swanson, 1917.
Gloria's first rendez-vous with Cecil B. DeMille is written with words of awe.
The year is 1918 and Gloria works for a little film studio called Triangle, making silly films not worth mentioning. She's is waiting with much enthusiasm to hear what her next picture will be about, and with not so much interest in who is going to direct it, when she receives a phone call.
"Miss Swanson, please."
"This is Miss Swanson."
"Good morning, Miss Swanson. I'm Oscar Goodstadt, the casting director at Famous Players-Lasky and I'm calling on behalf of Cecil B. De Mille. Mr. De Mille would like to see you at your earliest convenience. Could you come in at three today? Miss Swanson?"
"Oh! Yes. Yes, I can."
Mr Goodstadt started to tell me how to get to the studio, but I said I knew where it was. Everybody knew where it was.It took up a whole block at Sunset and Vine. It was where Mary Pickford worked. And Douglas Fairbanks. And Almighty God himself, Cecil B. De Mille.
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 95
Cecil B. DeMille at his desk.
Oh, little Gloria - 18 years old, 5'1" (155 cm) tall, and has an oppointment of her own at Cecil B. DeMille's office - she must have had lots of guts! Now, enjoy DeMille appearing like a God in front of our little heroine.
Any notion I may have had of style or elegance evaporated the moment I was ushered into Mr. De Mille's paneled office. It was vast and somber, with tall stained-glass windows and deep polar-bear rugs. Light from the windows shone on ancient firearms and other weapons on the walls, and the elevated desk and chair resembled nothing so much as a throne. I felt like a peanut poised on teetering high heels.
When he stood up behind the desk, he seemed to tower. Not yet forty, he seemed ageless, magisterial. He wore his baldness like an expensive hat, as if it were out of the question for him to have hair like other men. A sprig of laurel maybe, but not ordinary hair. He was wearing gleaming boots and riding breeches that fit him like a glove. He came over and took my hand, led me to a large sofa and sat down beside me. and proceeded to look clear through me. He said that he had seen me in a little Sennett picture and had never forgotten me, and that at the moment he was preparing a picture in which he wanted to use me. He asked me what kind of contract I had at Triangle.
"I have no contract at all."
"Well, then, who represents you?"
"No one."
"You mean your parents handle your business affairs?"
"Oh, no, Mr. De Mille. I'm over eighteen. I'll be nineteen the twenty-seventh of March."
"Ah, Aries, of course," he said and smiled.
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 95-96
Cecil B. DeMille (second from the right) poses with Jessy L. Lasky, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn and Albert Kaufman after the Famous Players-Lasky merger. Ca. 1916.
They both agree that since she hasn't any contract with Triangle, there will be no problem for him to use her for his next picture. Excited, Gloria Swanson leaves his office, after receiving a gentle tap on the shoulder of Mr. DeMille, and leaves for home. Two days later she receives a phone call from Triangle, they want her for another picture. She proudly says that she is going to work with Mr. DeMille now, she can't accept the job.
Thirty minutes later she receives another phone call, now from Mr. DeMille's secretary, wanting Gloria to come right away. She meets Mr. DeMille once again.
"Everything you told me turned out to be true," he said. "However, lawyers have a way of complicating things. Triangle's legal department has raised the possibility that even though you did not sign a contract with the studio, you did accept a raise in salary. They are contending that when you accepted the raise, you in effect agreed to a verbal contract. So it may still be possible you still belong to them. Were you over eighteen when you accepted the raise?"
I nodded, trying to hold back the tears. Mr. De Mille put his arms around me. "These things happen," he said. "That's why we have a motion picture association. The Triangle attorneys will present their case to an impartial arbitrator selected by the association. His decision will be binding. We won't go to court about it. There isn't time. We'll just hope everything turns out all right. Whatever happens, thank you for coming over, Miss Swanson."
Swanson on Swanson (1980), p. 96-97
Gloria Swanson, 1918.
Things didn't work out all right. Within 48 hourse Gloria received the message that she belonged to Triangle, and could not work with Mr. DeMille. Gloria realized that she had to accept it, if she ever wanted to work in pictures again. The next morning she forced herself to sign her hateful contract without so much as reading a word of it.
So, this time was not her break-through, due to pitiful circumstances created by an obstinate little motion picture company. Read about Gloria Swanson kicking off her career in part two of The Cecil B. DeMille and Gloria Swanson union!
"The little girl made me. I wasn't waiting for the little girl to kill me."
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was an Academy Award winning Canadian born actress. She was the first motion picture movie star, introduced with many nicknames such as "The Girl With the Golden Curls", "Little Mary" (she was only 1.54 m tall), and most famous - "America's Sweetheart". She was a co-founder of the film studio United Artists (together with Charlie Chaplin, husband Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith), and also one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. In all, she was not only the first movie star, but also a business woman and one of the greatest pioneers in film history.
Jack and Mary Pickford with silent western film actor William S. Hart.
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Canada 1892. She had two younger siblings, Jack and Lottie Pickford, who also became actors. Her father was an alcoholic who left his family in 1895 and three years later died from cerebral hemorrhage. Her mother started renting out rooms to boarders, and it was one of those house guests who introduced 7-year old Gladys to the Princess Theatre in Toronto. In the early 1900's the family began touring the United States as actors by rail. In 1907 Gladys got a supporting role at a Broadway play, written by William C. DeMille (brother to the then unknown Cecil B. DeMille, who also acted in the play). It was at that time the producer of the play gave Gladys the stage name Mary Pickford.
Later in 1909 director D. W. Griffith at the Biograph Company saw a screentest with Mary Pickford and immediately became interested in her. After only one day of shooting she got twice as much money as other actresses ($10 a day with a guarantee for $40 a week). She however began her career by playing the same kind of roles as others: rejecting women, slaves, prostitutes etc. Even though her roles from the beginning wasn't credited, the audiences recognized her. Movie theatres soon advertised the films shown by writing out that the films featured "The Girl With The Golden Curls", "Goldielocks" or "The Biograph Girl". In 1912 her career started to blossom, and she gave some of her greatest performances in D. W. Griffith films like The Mender of Nets (also featuring a young Mabel Normand), Just Like a Woman and Friends (with Lionel Barrymore). Pickford also introduced her friends Dorothy and Lillian Gish to Griffith, which proved successful for their careers.
Film clip: Lillian and Dorothy Gish with Mary Pickford and her mother, ca 1927.
Left to right: Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. The fourth founder, D. W. Griffith, is not in the picture.
In 1913 Mary Pickford took a chance on Broadway again. That experience lead her to the realization that she really wanted to be a motion picture star. She returned to film making and joined Adolph Zukor's group of famous players in his newly started company Famous Players Film Company (later Famous Players-Lasky, and even more later Paramount Pictures). Their she made, among other films, the comedy Hearts Adrift (directed by Edwin S. Porter 1914, the director of the film history milestone The Great Train Robbery from 1903), which brought in so much money that Pickford, the first time of many to come, a pay raise. That film was also the first one to put Pickford's name above the the title on the movie marquees. After a few films more, she was the most popular actress in America, if not in the world. Only Charlie Chaplin could compete with her. During the 1910's and 1920's Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or as a silent-film journalist said:
"the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history."
In 1916 she signed a contract with Adolph Zukor that granted her full authority over the production of the films she starred in. Her salary was now record-high $10 000 a week. Two years later she broke with Famous Players ans started producing her own films, and in 1919 she founded the independent film production company United Artists, alongside Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith.
"We were pioneers in a brand-new medium. Everything's fun when you're young."
Her first film as an independent producer and distributor at United Artists was Daddy-Long-Legs (1919). Mary Pickford was the first actress to receive more than $1 000 000 dollars a year.
Scene: Mary Pickford as orphan Judy Abbott in Daddy-Long-Legs (1919).
Mary Pickford behind the camera.
Little Mary needs a stool to reach the camera!
Mary Pickford was married three times. Her first husband was Irish-born silent actor Owen Moore, whom she was married to 1911-1920. That marriage is believed to have been scattered because of Moore's alcoholism, violence and shame to live in the shadow of Pickford's success. The couple lived separately for years, and Pickford became romantically involved with Douglas Fairbanks. Pickford and Moore divorced in early 1920. 26 days later Pickford was married to Fairbanks. Douglas Fairbanks became an international success after starring in movies like The Mark of Zorro (1920), so both parties of the couple were extremely popular. The couple was referred to as "Hollywood royalty" and their Beverly Hills mansion was popularly called "Pickfair".
Mary Pickford made the step from silent pictures to talking without problems, and so did Fairbanks. 1929 Pickford played the reckless socialite Norma Besant in Coquette. Before the film Pickford had cut her long, curly hair (in connection to the loss of her mother the year before) into a 1920's bob hair cut. That move covered front pages in all the world. Although Pickford won an Academy Award for the part in Coquette, the audience didn't like the film as much. Probably because of the difference between the part of seducing Norma Besant and the more cute film parts the audience was used to Pickford playing. Pickford felt however that the cute girl parts were over. She made her last motion picture in 1933 called Secrets, and then never returned to the screen again.
"I'm sick of Cindrella parts, of wearing rags and tatters. I want to wear smart clothes and play the lover."
The marriage with Fairbanks ended in 1936, after many years of struggling to have time for each other between film making and producing and world touring. Pickford had had enough when Fairbanks had an affair with English model Sylvia Ashley, which became big news. Fairbanks' son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, stated later that both Pickford and Fairbanks regretted not trying to fix their relationship.
Mary Pickford with her future husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers in The Best Girl (1927).
However, Pickford married a third time, and that marriage would last until her death in 1979. Her last spouse was actor Charles "Buddy" Rogers (male lead in Wings, 1927, with Clara Bow), with whom she had acted with in The Best Girl (1927).
In the 1930's many people around Pickford died, which changed her persona radically. In 1933 her brother Jack died because of "progressive multiple neuritis which attacked all the nerve centers". Three years later Lottie died of a heart attack, possibly due to large amounts of alcohol during the years. 1939 Douglas Fairbanks also suffered a heart attack and died. Upon the hearing of Fairbanks' death it is reported that Pickford had burst into tears in front of her new husband Rogers and stated that "My darling is gone". According to Pickford herself, though, she had held her tears back, afraid to hurt her husband, and didn't allowe herself to cry until she was alone on a train. These deaths, the divorce from Fairbanks and the end of her film career left Pickford in a great depression.
Pickford and Rogers adopted two children in 1943 and 1944. According to several documentaries and the children's own words she wasn't the greatest mother, often remarcing their physical imperfections. The children left Pickfair at a young age, but they later in life stated that they had loved their mother, even though she wasn't very maternal.
Pickford at a Bing Crosby performance at the Coconut Grove nightclub, 1934.
During her life, Mary Pickford used her social position for many political causes. During WWI she, her then soon-to-be husband Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and Canadian actress Marie Dressler promoted the sale of Liberty Bonds by giving public speeches, kicking off in Washington DC 1918. Five days later Pickford gave a speech at Wall Street to a crowd estimated to 50 000 people. She also posed for cameras kissing the American flag and auctioning one of her golden curls, bringing in $15 000. In the end of WWI Pickford co-created the Motion Picture Relief Fund for financially needy actors, together with the usual gang of Chaplin, Fairbanks, Griffith, but also other movie people.
Douglas Fairbanks making a speech to a great crowd in New York City, April 1918.
Mary Pickford gives President Herbert Hoover a ticket for a film industry benefit for the unemployed, 1931.
In addition to re-shaping the motion picture art (at the time when Pickford entered the movie business the film industry was all concentrated on film adaptions of Broadway plays and nothing else), Pickford proceeded with producing films even after her retirement as an actress in 1933. She and Chaplin remained partners in United Artists for decades. In 1955 Chaplin left the company, and the next year Pickford followed his example. She sold her remaining shares of the company for $3 000 000.
News 1956: Mary Pickford sells United Artists... and a little commercial for Camel cigarettes.
Pickford with her Honorary Oscar, 1976.
In her later years Pickford developed alcoholism, following the footsteps of her father, mother, two younger siblings and her ex-husband Owen Moore. The more the years went, the more isolated Pickford became. Soon she only allowed visits from old friend Lillian Gish and stepson Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and later on only communicated via her bed room phone. Husband Charles Rogers often gave guests tours of the Pickfair, one of the attractions being a genuine western bar Pickford once bought to Fairbanks. In 1976 Pickford received an Honorary Academy Award for life time achievement, in addition to the one for Best Actress she received in 1930 for Coquette.
Mary Pickford died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1979, aged 87. She was buried in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetary in Glendale, California. Alongside her lies her mother, her sister Lottie and brother Jack buried.
The American Film Institute named Pickford 24th among the greatest female stars of all time. Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss and Marlee Matlin talks about the greatness of Mary Pickford.
Personal quotes:
We maniacs had fun and made good pictures and a lot of money. In the early years United Artists was a private golf club for the four of us.
If you have made mistakes . . . and there is always another chance for you. . . . you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down but the staying down.
I never liked one of my pictures in its entirety.
Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.
[on Douglas Fairbanks] In his private life Douglas always faced a situation in the only way he knew, by running away from it.
[on Charles Chaplin] That obstinate, suspicious, egocentric, maddening and lovable genius of a problem child.
Hollywood royalty, and the ideal couple of Hollywood history - Pickford and Fairbanks.
A film adaptation of the Elinor Glyn novel (author of It, filmed with Clara Bow in 1927, and Three Weeks), directed by Sam Wood (director of the Marx Brothers movies A Night at the Opera from 1935 and A Day at the Races from 1937). Elinor Glyn accompanied at the shooting of the film. For most of the 20th century this film was thought to be lost, but was found 2003 in a private collection in the Netherlands. (A short and fascinating documentary of the restoration is included later on in this post.)
It was great news when this film finally was found since it contained two of the greatest star of that era, the only time they acted together on screen - Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. The film begins with a young girl, Theodora Fitzgerald (Swanson), who falls out from a rowing boat. A handsome, rich young man, Lord Hector Bracondale (Valentino), sees her from his boat and quickly jumps into the water to her rescue.
Lord Bracondale jumps for Theodora's rescue.
Theodora give Lord Bracondale a narcissus flower.
Theodora's half-sisters wants her to get married to a rich man.
The dramatic incident is soon over, and Theodora thanks her hero by giving him a narcissus flower. They say goodbye and Theodora follows her father home. While at home Theodoras half sisters convinces her that she has to get married soon, to a rich man who can restore their lost family fortune. Not wanting to hurt her father, she acts when an opportunity comes - a rich old man, Josiah Brown (Robert Bolder), proposes to her and she accepts. They go away for their honeymoon, spending it in "a quaint inn, high in the snow-clad Alps".
The scent of narcissus brings the youth together.
However, fate seems to want Theodora and Lord Bracondale to get together ones again. It happens that Lord Bracondale, his mother and his fiancée spend their holiday at the same place at the same time. In the dining room, a waiter finds a lost handkerchief next to Lord Bracondales table, and asks the company if it belongs to them. It doesn't but Lord Bracondale recognizes the perfume, even though he at first can't replace it. However, the handkerchief finds its rightful owner. Lord Bracondale follows it with his eyes, but since Theodora sits with her back to him, a bell doesn't ring.
Theodora recognizes her hero.
The next morning, Theodora and her lady friend Jane McBride (Mabel Van Buren) go mountain climbing. In an attempt to take a picture of her friend, Theodora takes one too many steps back, and falls over the cliff. From a distance, Lord Bracondale happens to see the woman hanging in a rope around her waist, fainted. He quickly runs for her rescue, again, and ends upp at a cliff alone with Theodora while the other in the company go back for help. All alone on that cliff together, recognizing each other, forbidden feelings start to grow.
For a start Theodora enjoys Lord Bracondales company, but when she no longer can control her feelings she gets scared. She made a vow when marrying Josiah Brown, that she fears she is going to break. She decides that she and Lord Bracondale must never see each other again. But even if not fate wanted otherwise, Lord Bracondale surely wouldn't give up the love of his life that easy.
I can't express how grateful I am for the restoring of Beyond the Rocks, which in my meaning is an immortal classic for every silent era devotee to see. The cast is brilliant, and Valentino (who I always thought was a little androgynous) in this picture is extremely handsome, if not even smoking hot! (But I guess I'm not a normal woman, either.) I understand the panic among his devoted fans when he died. At two occasions there are historical retrospects (or perhaps the characters imaginations and fantasies running a little wild); one takes place in the 18th century, and the other in Ancient Egypt. They add a little humour and glamour into the movie, and even though they might be a little odd, they are not in the least negative in any way.
See this film if you get a hold of it. A romantic drama with Swanson and Valentino can't be missed!
Quotes:
[to Lord Hector Bracondale] Theodora Fitzgerald: Fate seems to send you to me when I most need you, Lord Bracondale.
[when smelling a narcissus] Lord Hector Bracondale: I shall always associate this wonderful perfume with you.
Theodora Fitzgerald: I could never live under the shadow of my broken word!
Lord Hector Bracondale: Darling, we have passed the rocks and here are the safe waters beyond.
Documentary: The restoration of Beyond the Rocks.
Below: A picture from the filming of Beyond the Rocks, with a yawning Gloria Swanson to the left, Valentino with the script, author Elinor Glyn with the big hat and director Sam Wood to the right. (Click for a larger picture.)
The year is 1917 in a small country town. Two young men, rich David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) and not-so-rich Jack Powell (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) are in love with a beautiful city girl, Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston). Sylvia on the other hand is only interested in David, but is too kind to tell Jack about her feelings. Jack's neighbour, Mary Preston (Clara Bow), is a sweet country girl deeply in love with him, but he doesn't notice her feelings.
Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Clara Bow and Richard Arlen.
Jack has always dreamt of being a pilot, and soon his dream comes true when he and his rival David need to join the war. Both men say farewell to their loved ones and depart. Meanwhile, heartbroken about Jack going off to war, Mary sees a opportunity to meet him by joining the Women's Motor Corp.
This is an amazing war movie, that I think works as well today as it did then. The filming technique is impressing, letting all the actors fly real planes (Richard Arlen knew how to, since being a pilot for real in World War I, but Charles "Buddy" Rogers had to learn while filming), having thousands of extras in the battle scenes and real explotions going off everywhere. One man was even killed during the filming (an army pilot helping out on the shoot) and another stunt pilot broke his neck, having to spend six weeks in a hospital.
As I stated before, the camera work is really impressing. One frame I remember very well from the movie is when the troops a marching into the war, filmed from above, and in the sky above the horizone you can see men battling and tanks move across the battle field.
The airplane battle scenes are very convincing and engaging, and makes this film comparitable with war movies today. The film feels very modern over all, I nearly can't recall afterwards that it was a silent film I saw.
Another part of the movie I feel is worth mentioning is during the soldiers' furlough in Paris. Mary runs into Jack there, him being so drunk that he sees bubbles flowing in the air (these made with a technique making the scenes feel kind of surreal). Mary, anyhow, follows him up to his hotel room, after a cat fight with another woman interested in him. Jack blacks out on the bed, and Mary decides to change her clothes from civilian to military. Unfortunately two soldiers walks in on her when she's naked, and she is sent back home for inappropriate behaviour. The surprising thing about this scene is that they don't only imply Clara Bow being naked, for a quarter of a secong you actually can see her breasts. That, I feel, is very daring for a movie made in 1927. Scene: Mary Preston (Clara Bow) arrives to an apparently empty town, and is soon attacked by the Germans.
There are some interesting trivia for this movie, apart from that I've already written about:
The director, William A. Wellman, does something we today would call a "cameo", even though he has a line, as a doughboy (a United States Army infantry man) in the last battle scene. After he's been shot down, he says:
"Atta boy. Them buzzards are some good after all."
His wife and daughter also makes appearances toward the end of the movie, as a farmer's wife and her daugther, whose house an airplane crashes into.
Also, according to Clara Bow biographer David Stenn, Bow was furious about having to wear a uniform that hid her figure, demanding to wear a belt that would bring out her curves.
This movie was the only one in the history of Academy Awards winning the prize for Best Production. (Best Production and Best Artistic Quality of Pruduction, that year won by Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, were then replaced by the Oscar for Best Picture.)
Richard Arlen (David Armstrong in the movie) actually married the girl in real life. He and Jobyna Ralston (playing Sylvia) met and fell for each other during the filming of Wings.
One more footnote: Remember me noticing Gary Cooper in a little role as an uncredited journalist in It (1927)? Imagine my happiness when I saw that he would have a role even in this movie, and this time his character had a name! He divinly enters the screen at 00:27:03 as a sleeping Cadet White. At 00:27:37 he introduces himself to David and Jack, saying to the latter:
"Glad you fellows are here, Powell. We'll see a lot of each other."
...and he is just generally very sexy. He exchanges some words with the boys, chews off a bit of a candy bar, talks some more with the war newbies about mascots, one close-up at 00:29:44 and then he exits at 00:29:53. What happens next? He flies a plane, crashes it and dies. What was the director thinking? Killing off the women's drool object after less than three minutes! Oh, those eyes... The Paul Newman of the 1920's. Shame on William A. Wellman.
Gary Cooper (standing) as Cadet White.
Quotes:
British Soldier: Hello Yank, welcome to a very merry little war. And now how about a wee drop for the King and Uncle Sam?
Sergeant in Mervale: Hey, if youse guys need kissin' I'll kiss you - wit' a gun-butt!
Mary Preston: D'you know what you can do when you see a shooting star? Jack Powell: No, what? Mary Preston: You can kiss the girl you love.
"IT" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "IT" you win all men if you are a woman - and all women if you are a man. "IT" can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction. Elinor Glyn
In the 1920's people were talking about whether they got "it" or not. The idea of "it" was introduced to the crowds via the popular novelist Elinor Glyn's book with the same title. Throughout her life she came to describe the meaning of "it" in many different ways, but altogether you can state that "it" is an eufemism for "sex appeal". And it is that expression that this film circles around.
Betty Lou Spence (Bow), a girl who obviously has got a lot of "it", works as a shop girl in a department store. One day she lays her eyes on the handsome owner, Cyrus Waltham Jr (Antonio Moreno) and decides that she is going to lay her hands on him. She does so by accepting a dinner invitation by his best friend Monty (William Austin) and tells him that they will dine on The Ritz, where she knows Waltham is dining with his girlfriend. Her plan works. She draws his attention and goes on a date with him. Unfortunately things get a bit more complicated when a news reporter mistakenly writes about her in the news paper as a single mother.
Scene: Betty Lou spends an evening at the beach with her boss Cyrus Waltham.
This film really got to me. It was amazingly amusing. The only thing that may show that a lot of years have passed since the making of it is Mr Waltham's reaction on Betty as an unwed mother. Good heavens, now he can't see any future with her! Clara Bow is a divine woman. If I wasn't convinced before I saw the move that she had "it", I have proof for it now. She is charmingly aware of her beauty and sex appeal, making her mor attractive when she tries to look innocent and sweet. Few actresses could have done that double-edged part in a convincing way like Bow did, because after all - Clara Bow is Betty Lou. Also, kudos to Moreno as the handsome and respectable Waltham, and kudos to William Austin for the role of the ridiculous but charming Monty.
Two appearances are extra notable: Elinor Glyn stars as herself for a minute or two at The Ritz, describing to Mr Waltham how to define "it". The other appearance is that of someone not yet famous. When I saw the news reporter I thought "Hey! That looks like Gary Cooper!". And guess what? It was.
Quotes:
[Betty Lou first lays eyes on Cyrus Waltham Jr] Betty Lou Spence: Sweet Santa Claus, give me *him*!
Betty Lou: So you're one of those Minute Men - the minute you meet a girl you think you can kiss her!
