Marceline Day deserves a gold star… That Model from Paris (1926)

“Dumb?” “No! French…”

This is not the most sophisticated comedy but it has a number of things going for it… well, OK it has one thing going for it and she’s called Marceline Day one of those timeless people who just looks like they’ve been dropped straight from 2017 back into 1926.

Marceline it was who went swimming with Buster in The Cameraman, stayed true to Lars Hanson in Captain Salvation and kept a straight face alongside John Barrymore in The Beloved Rogue.  She has lovely open face and a strong range of naturalistic responses to ensure she kept pace with her leading men. She has charm and knows how to use it, seemingly with no deliberation.

Here she is most definitely the leading lady and in all ways as her male co-stars fulfil supporting roles and she is the centre of the situation and most of the comedy. We still have films led by women but were there proportionately more in the silent era? Marceline must be in 90% of the scenes and her nominal co-star Bert Lytell looks out of his league, in spite of a winning smile shining through his make-up…

Marceline is Diana Prince or possibly Clark Kent's sister

Like so many comedies of the time, this one is set in a department store. Marceline, heavily disguised as be-spectacled plain Jane Miller, works as a cashier. When floor manager Mr. Katz (Otto Lederer) hands out free tickets to his daughter’s debut at the Follies, poor Jane has no one to go with (not credible, even with those glasses on) and no posh frock to wear. Fellow wage-slave and well-connected ambitious blonde Marmie (Eileen Percy – also very good value) agrees to accompany Jane and also comes up with a scheme to borrow one of the dresses from the store…

On the night, Marmie is accompanied by her sugar daddy, Morgan Grant (Ward Crane) who brings a pal along for Jane even though he quickly decides she’s more his type… Oh Marmie, he may have money but he’s not that sweet!

Marmie watches Morgan try and impress Jane

Cue some follies action featuring Sabel Johnson  as Katz’s that, frankly, I wouldn’t be handing out tickets for if my duaghter was on stage: shocking! But Mr Katz is soon diverted by the realization that one of his store’s dresses is being worn by his cashier!

No matter how Jane tries to hide behind her stole she isn’t getting away from this one and faced with the certainty of a bad Monday morning opts to escape for a good night back at Grant’s opulent pad.

Whilst Marmie and his pal dance, Grant’s devious plan takes shape as he offers her a modelling job at the store and – in a note he doesn’t show to Jane, we see him offering to pay all of her salary… What a rat and, looking up at an inopportune moment, Marmie notes the suspicious intimacy between the two. However, what she has missed is Jane rebuffing the traitorous letch – he apologises but his is the long game…

Jane duly arrives and gets the gig – the Manager (Arthur Hoyt) being delighted at this additional free helper – and  then, the real set up begins… a visiting group of French models are minus their star attraction and so, of course, Jane, the rookie, can stand in for her as no one knows what she looks like!

The only, or rather main, complication is that Jane doesn’t speak French and so must act dumb to avoid being found out. Nothing could be simpler n’est pas?

Bert is overjoyed to meet a French gal

Meanwhile, the son of the store owners, Robert Richmond (Bert the inert) has spotted Jane’s talent immediately and begins to try and befriend her using her native language? All Jane can say is “no!” and shrug her shoulders, not even “non!” but the universal language of Anglais.

There is much fun to be had over this simple device, especially when Robert takes “Miss DuPont” to a French restaurant and they both end up with ham and eggs. Gradually Jane warms to his charms and even begins to translate his little notes professing admiration in French.

Meanwhile wicked mean Morgan is pushing Jane hard to meet with him alone…

Eileen Percy as Jane's pal, Marmie

How long can Jane avoid his creepy clutches and how long can she carry on being French without Robert finding out? More to the point, what chance does Mr Grant have if Marmie finds out his plan for Jane?!

Directed by Louis J. Gasnier That Model from Paris is a slick enough vehicle for its star and makes the most of a competent if unexceptional script.

It’s worth watching for the two main women characters - Eileen Percy’s Marmie is a gal to be reckoned with and you wouldn’t want to see her mad, especially when she’s getting a facial! Marceline Day clearly had star qualities and not just the most regular features in Hollywood. She is not as remembered as perhaps she could be and, according to the Silent Film Hall of Fame from whom I obtained this DVD, she has not even got a star on the Walk of Fame.

On this evidence, and the aforementioned roles alone, she deserves one.

Marceline Day and Bert Lytell

Clara take a bow… Parisian Love (1925)

I’ve previously observed that sometimes it’s the smaller films that tend to reveal more about the contemporary appeal of silent stars but the same should apply to the less well-realized ones...

Parisian Love obviously had no shortage of budget, (the sets are lavish), nor acting talent, there’s a top-notch cast, yet it’s not the most convincing of stories with a narrative propelled by unfathomable motivations not helped by some strange cuts (maybe there were more than surviving reels?).

But there is one who keeps you watching through the muddle and whose energy, intensity and indomitable buoyancy keeps everything afloat… Clara Bow.

Directed by Louis J. Gasnier, from a story by F. Oakley Crawford then adapted by Lois Hutchinson, Parisian Love was a vehicle for the rising young star – just 19 when this was filmed.

She was aided and abetted by veteran stage actor Lou Tellegen along with Donald Keith – a likeable boy next door who was placed in a number of early Bow films, most notably The Plastic Age. Here he is unconvincingly cast along with Clara as an “Apache” a French gang member living a life of criminality on the rough fringes of Parisian society: they’re rough tough and dangerous to know, even if they are quite delicately featured…

But Clara, with her background, is eminently convincing as a girl who will stop at nothing: is she acting harder as a lover or a fighter? Either way, she is watchable - a high energy beauty with an emotional force that tramples all over the stodgy script…

Clara is Marie a dancer of ill repute who cons the tourists and the  otherwise unwary in faked bar-room crimes of passion, pretending to dance with one man (Jean De Briac) whilst her supposed lover Armand (Keith) shoots him in outrage.

During one of these mock dance-fights, Armand picks up a card belonging to one of the wealthy guests, it belongs to the wealthy Pierre Marcel (Tellegen) who the three decide to burgle… doesn’t do to leave business cards lying around in Parisian bars obviously…

Marie dresses as a man in true Musidora fashion, and keeps watch as the others break into Marcel’s chateau, but they are caught in the act by the millionaire and Armand intervenes to stop his partner in crime stabbing him. Marcel locks his assailant in another room and persuades the police that Armand is his friend. The police shoot the knifeman dead and are convinced that they’ve wounded the third thief…

Donald Keith and Lou Tellegen share a moment

Marcel recognises Armand from when he was a student of his and, knowing a hard-luck story when he sees it he resolves to rehabilitate the young man… especially after he feints from blood poisoning gained from an earlier injury (missing film?). Now, whether this philanthropic generosity has any more in-delicate motivation is entirely in the eye of the beholder…

Meanwhile… life is tough for Marie as she returns to the run-down apartment she shares with her drunken step-mother Frouchard (a splendidly shambolic turn from Lillian Leighton) and her even more dishevelled husband.

Lillian Leighton and Clara have a frank exchange

Marie gains entry to Marcel’s chateau disguised as a maid and manages to plant a kiss on her love’s forehead as he sleeps in delirium but she cannot wake him as his new benefactor keeps his own watch. For his part, Armand cannot get free to visit Marie and… one thing leads to another and he ends up believing her dead whilst she becomes convinced that Marcel has poisoned Armand against her and persuaded him to become engaged to the more appropriate Margot (Hazel Keener).

Sometimes you just can’t catch a break…

Marie and the Apaches discuss the plan...

Marie decides on exacting revenge and decides to break Marcel’s heart by marrying him to prove a point about how “suitable” she is and she gains support from fellow Apaches who plan to use the plan to rob the rich man.

There follows more twists and turns than in a second division  regency play as true love attempts to find its way through a maze of bad timing and misapprehension.

Clara shows her range

But… through it all Clara Bow plays it full strength and even if her motivation is lost her tears are always real… remembering the childhood trauma that she recalled when required to dry. And that’s the quality of Clara, she is genuinely emotional and honestly appealing in every role I’ve seen her and here is no different.

Lou Tellegen was interesting to watch too, a lot of stage craft had been gained in his time on Broadway with the likes of Sarah Bernhardt and he is grossly under-used here in this curious role. He completely outweighs the light comic touch of Donald Keith whose homely every-boy-next-door persona was a good pairing for the sexually electric Bow – he made her seem a “possibility” to the male audience.

In reality, Gary Cooper was more her style so, sorry boys, you’ll just have to dream on.

I watched the Kino DVD which pairs the film with the more interesting Down to the Sea in Ships… of which more later. It’s available direct and from reputable retailers. Catch Parisian Love if you can, it’s far from perfect but it captures a moment when the studio was trying to capture and refine the raw power of Bow.