Lust in the dust? The Song of Love (1924), Directed by Frances Marion, produced by Norma Talmadge

Outside of Miss Talmadge there isn't an awful lot to "The Song of Love." It is another of those desert stories, the same type more or less that went out of fashion a little over a year ago…

The Variety reviewer (1) wasn’t pulling any punches about this film or even it’s undoubtedly very popular star – the highest paid female actor at the time – although he was considerably impressed with her revealing costume. The New York Times - Mordaunt Hall? -concurred on both film and the newly discovered Talmadge torso, a step away from her usual “demure” roles…

Imagine passing into the Rivoli with a vague impression of Miss Talmadge in poke bonnet and voluminous hoop skirts that jealously guard even her ankles from view, and suddenly beholding a startling vision of undeniable beauty, clad expensively, but not extensively.

Film Daily felt Norma looked ill at ease in the revealing costume – she certainly didn’t wear anything so skimpy again – but perhaps all of this shows that even though a highly competent and versatile star, the public had an expectation of what a Norma Talmadge film should be.

Norma's saying no to Arthur Carewe

No doubt intended to cash in on the sex and sand success of The Sheik, The Song of Love is entertaining but a bit of a clunker, one of so many well made, mediocre films that have blighted Norma’s reputation in spite of the evidence of her work with Frank Borzage (Secrets (1924) and The Lady (1925)), sentimental neo-classics like Smilin’ Through and the energised comedy of Kiki. As Lea Jacobs (2) has pointed out, Norma was let down by too many weak plots and even weaker dialogue. Jeanine Basinger (3) further suggests that the oldest Talmadge was just too versatile for her own good and “never developed a single persona, a ‘role’ that audiences thought was actually her in real life…” She was considered a fine actor and one who took on all kinds of roles many of which showed her as a transitional figure; “she had one foot in the 1890s and the other in the 1920s…”

All this said, Norma Talmadge is likeable in every film I’ve seen her in and, whilst F Scott Fitzgerald described her as the epitome of glamour in Tender is the Night, he also wrote that she must be a fine noble woman beyond her loveliness. Maybe Norma’s just too nice for modern tastes?

Too nice?

She transcends the limitations of Frances Marion’s adaptation of Margaret Peterson novel’s Dust of Desire and brings out the humour in a script of varying sensibilities that leaves even Norma sometimes staring our through lines she can scarcely believe… and she was the producer! Marion co-directed with Chester M. Franklin, one of only three films she directed, the others being Mary Pickford’s The Love Light (1921) and Margaret Seddon’s Just Around the Corner (1921). It’s a competent film, enjoyable on its own terms but mostly for Norma.

Song of Love is set in the town of Ahamar in Algeria and Norma plays an exotic dancer (in old money) called Noorma-hal (see what they did?) and described as The Rose of All the World by the appreciative locals in her Uncle, Chandra-lal’s (Hector V. Sarno) gambling den. Her biggest fan, Ramlika (Arthur Edmund Carewe) just so happens to be the leader of a Tuareg uprising against the occupying French “Christian dogs” (probably) who are likeable colonialists dressed smartly and unaware of the hatred all around them

New romantic or glam? Joseph Schildkraut

Ramlika’s passion is not reciprocated by Noorma-hal and is only inflamed by her skimpy style and sure-footed gyrations – which are mostly shot at distance either to shield the delicate audience from the full-on raunch or, possibly the fact that a stand in is being used. But Norma carries it all off and Ramlika promises that when this is all over, she’ll be his.

The local colonial notables, Commissionaire Desmond (Earl Schenck), Captain Fregonne (Mario Carillo), Dr. Humbert (James Cooley) and their American friend Dick Jones (Laurence Wheat) from Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA… have gotten wind of the plotting and called in French agent Ramon Valverde (Joseph Schildkraut) but, round these parts, it’s not just walls that have ears but curtains too with Ramlika’s spy, Chamba (Albert Prisco) hearing the whole plan.

Valverde is no mug though and makes his first appearance in disguise looking something like Spandau Ballet’s bass player in 1983 as he listens in to the Tuareg’s plans at the gambling den. He doesn’t go unnoticed by our dancing heroine who ignores his make up sensing the goodness of the man inside. Ramlika isn’t impressed and the two men fight with Valverde making good his escape and deciding to use Noorma-hal’s attraction to him to keep tabs on the uprising.

Maude Wayne as the Other Woman

Whilst all’s fair in love and war, Valverde goes on to show us his moral fibre when he refuses to rekindle an old affair with the Commissioner’s wife Maureen (Maude Wayne). But Noorma-hal catches them in the act of not continuing and assumes, correctly based on his previous thinking, that he only wants the white Christian woman. Passions are, however, on the rise and Noorma-hal is soon stuck between a frog and a hard face as she must decide who to betray and when. The Tuareg forces are massing and only she can stave off disaster but, at what cost to herself?!

               

As the above reviews indicate even at the time this was an old tale and whilst there are twists and turns, they are mostly predictable. What saves it is Norma who is nearly always in the moment and the only really relatable character throughout.

I watched the film on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray set, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (4) which uses the German print which has a different ending from the US print – which is explained via title card and which is the more surprising conclusion for a number of reasons. The print quality is mostly excellent but there is some deterioration which Greta de Groat says is not present on the other surviving print held at the Library of Congress but you can’t have it all - it's a mostly fine looking 

film and inspite of the gripes, who doesn't like watching Norma T work even if it's mostly so much sand and fury signifying very little.

Norma Talmadge straight to mirror

1. Greta de Groat’s excellent website has a wealth of Norma information and links to the World-Wide-Web of Talmadge – I lifted the Variety and NYT quotes from her!

2. Writing in Idols of Modernity: Movie Stars of the 1920s, Rutgers University Press (2010)

3. Jeanine Basinger – Silent Stars, Wesleyan University Press (2000)

4. The six Blu-ray set Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is of course essential and available direct from Kino Lorber as well as via Amazon.com – anyone else finding that export restrictions are being tightened recently?