All in a flap… Bare Knees (1928)

“It isn’t what you wear on your body; it’s what you wear in your head.”

My Great Aunt Lillian is 101 and was born just three years after Virginia Lee Corbin, the star of this film. I don’t think Lil was a rebellious teen but browsing through old family albums trying to play spot the flapper we have a few more likely suspects all given away by their hair, a twinkle in their eyes and the very real possibility that they once revealed their knees at Liverpool’s Grafton Ballroom.

Bare Knees is an archetypal “flapper movie” and plays to its audience like a late fifties teen movie or an eighties coming of age story that show the generations ultimately working together in the face of seemingly extreme shifts in fashion and mind-set… at first the adults don’t get it but in the end they re-discover their own youthful outlook and both sides recognise the others contribution… “you know kid… you’re alright!”. 

Forrest Stanley, Jane Winton and Virginia Lee Corbin

“If all women were like Jane, husbands wouldn’t have to worry…”

With a scintillating script by Harold Shumate based on a book by Adele Buffington, the film has some cracking intertitles all “delivered” in style by VLC, an actress I had heard little about but who had been in the flickers since childhood. Graduating to more grown-up fare here she is Billie, the teenage sister of Jane Longworth (another “Big Sis” role for the elegant Jane Winton – see The Patsy…) .

Jane lives in married malaise taken for granted every day by her careerist husband John (Forrest Stanley) who is a district attorney:  who clearly knows the law far better than his wife. John returns home on her birthday to find her with their best friend Paul Gladden (Johnnie Walker) and talks as if only he understands how to make a marriage work…

Virginia Lee Corbin

“Well, I could roll over and butter myself with sorrow! Is this a party… or a wake?”

But a storm is coming to disrupt this cosy complacency in the form of an unexpected arrival from Billie… The Longworth’s are just in the middle of a rather staid party when she makes her appearance as the door opens to reveal her feet first and then an alarming absence of skirt all the way up to and way beyond her knees!

Billie's hemline stuns the room into silence...

Director Erle C. Kenton makes the absolute most of this showing the entire room going into shock with open-mouthed astonishment all round…  It’s funny and works in the context but really the hepcats of Berlin and Paris would have been unimpressed. Still, everything in context!

Billie explodes into the room and catches the eye of both Paul and a young lawyer Larry Cook (Donald Keith) with whom she proceeds to sharply cut the rug.

Virginia Lee Corbin and Donald Keith

“Excuse yourself, Big Boy, while me and the girls split infinitives…”

 Billie finds a group of young women down in the mouth – they’re a baseball team and just they’ve lost their best player prior to a contest with the boys. All looks hopeless but Billie has an idea…

The girls run out with short-shorts and distract the boys into a 29 to zero defeat… if only the Boston Red Sox had had this idea they maybe wouldn’t have had to wait those 86 years between World Series…

Back page headlines

“Young lady, your bare knees and bare back are going to get you into trouble.”

Billie’s big splash doesn’t play well with sensible Jane though and the girls have it out back home. Jane can’t see that her sibling’s display is more about individuality than sexuality and neither can the men.
All that is, save for Larry who pops the question on a moonlit car drive. But Billie isn’t ready.

Will Larry strike out?

The youngsters have been frequenting the Ship Ahoy Café on the Pom Pom Pleasure Pier; it’s a lively place where “…the management is not responsible for the loss of hats, coats or reputations.”  John is looking to close the place down and sends Larry to investigate the bawdy venue with its dancing pirate girls and private rooms.

“Men find it difficult enough to be moral, even when women dress decently!”

Little does he know that his sister-in-law is not the only person to be frequenting the Café… things come to a head as truths are revealed, Billie shows her character and all hell breaks loose at the Pier.

Pom Pom pandemonium

Bare Knees is more fun in the first half when Billie’s attitude has the town’s high society on the run but it makes its point with the dramatics of the closing segment.

The performances are very good especially Jane Winton who plays the sensible sister weighed down by marital indifference with depth and subtlety.  Maude Fulton is also great value as Bessie, the Longworth’s comically-disheveled maid who makes a journey of her own inspired by Billie’s sartorial liberationalism.

Jane Winton

Virginia Lee Corbin’s energy naturally dominates and she makes for a thoroughly-modern flapper who has taken charge of her own choices and doesn’t need a man to define her. It’s a real shame there are so few of her films surviving. She married and started a family in the thirties but tragically died from TB at only 32… There’s more about her here on the Silents are Golden website in a biography from Tim Lussier.

I watched the Grapevine DVD which uses a reasonable print – it’s available direct or from Amazon. I wonder if Lil and my other great aunties ever saw it?

A game of two Talmadges… The Heart of Wetona (1919) vs Secrets (1924)

Of all the major stars of the silent ere – and I mean major - Norma Talmadge seems to be one of the hardest for modern viewers to connect with. Jeanine Basinger* is particularly good value of this point suggesting that whilst sister Constance had a definite persona that rises above her films, Norma was a more protean presence dependent on the strength of her material and that material was very much attuned to the tastes of the time.

For me, there’s no doubt Norma was the better dramatic actress, had greater performing ambition and more range – no matter how much I love “Dutch” as well. Her controlled expression was certainly put to good effect in Going Straight, Smiling Through and The Devil’s Needle and even lighter fare such as The Social Secretary. She could hold the camera’s gaze as well as Mary and Lillian and she was more womanly-grown-up than either and maybe that’s part of the problem.

Norma was often cast, even by herself,  as a lower middle class woman in situations of moral compromise and the audiences lapped these films up even if now their story lines are too over-used to generate much dramatic impact , no matter her skills as an actress. Perhaps she and husband/producer Joseph Schenck targeted the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation too firmly at their winning formula: the popular middle ground?

And how tastes change.

These two films represent extremes of Norma’s career: one an almost risible western and the other a far classier affair well directed by Frank Borzage and allowing the actress to really show her ability. They show what she could do and what she clearly chose to do and the day job served her very well…

Wetona worries...

The Heart of Wetona (1919) features Norma as the daughter of a white mother and an Indian chief Quannah (Fred Huntley), she has been educated in the East but still speaks in broken English… This is a film about the nobility of the savage as well as their hot-headed-ness and adherence to strange old religions. Of its time… naturally.

It’s also a remarkably frank film in terms of young Wetona’s sex life. She creates a scene at the tribe’s tribute to their gods by revealing her inappropriate casting as their “vestal virgin”: she has been having relations with a white man and father, severely unimpressed, plans to exact messy retribution.

Gladden James looking shifty

The guilty man is irresponsible Anthony Wells (Gladden James – who always looks a wrong ‘un) a young man who avoids responsibility at every turn in spite of the patronage of Government agent, Hardin (the asdmirable Mr Thomas Meighan).

Hardin offers to take responsibility until such time as Hardin is “ready”… it sounds a bit vague but we get the drift. Wetona goes along, her faith in Tony remarkably unshaken… even though we’ve worked him out long ago.

Wetona about to fail the vestal medical...

No spoilers… you can probably work it out for yourself. Needless to say, James is suitably craven, Huntley is a very noble savage and Meighan is excellent as the stand-up, stand-by guy.

Norma has a lot of screen time and a fair amount of close-ups to allow her to show her skill but the story rings slightly false in spite of some genuine conflict and peril, most of it constructed on narrative sand…  That face simply isn’t given enough emotional to work with and the close-ups only serve to remind the viewer how much real drama is missing.

Thomas Meighan and Norma

The Variety reviewer was unimpressed…  “…it is hardly a star part for Miss Talmadge. To be sure she is the pivotal character about which the plot revolves, but the role is purely a receptive one, and she is called upon to do little but pose as the bearer of the heavy burdens.”

Then again, Edward Weitzel was more positive in Moving Picture World, January 4, 1919 “…none of her impersonations has revealed deeper feeling or a better understanding of the art of acting. There is never the slightest doubt in the mind of the spectator as to what Norma Talmadge is trying to convey. …she is picturesque and beautifully human…”

See… even then “… the bearer of heavy burdens…” but "...beautifully human..." all the same.

Secrets (1924) is an altogether more satisfying film not just because of a superior story but obviously through Borzage’s inventive direction which provides a much richer dramatic scope. Based on a stage play – itself adapted from an opera – the film starts in the present and works forward from the past in a clever script from Frances Marion.

It’s 1924 and Norma is seventy-something Mary Carlton anxiously waiting for an improvement in the failing health of her husband John (Eugene O’Brien). She barely looks like Norma (30 at the time) and, even through the poor quality haze of the Silents are Golden DVD, she is clearly relishing the range of this role. She begins to look through her old diary and drifts off remembering her earlier life…

Norma goes from 1924 back to 1865...

We’re whisked back to 1865 when a 16-years old Mary is being prepared for a ball by her mother (Emily Fitzroy) and aunt. This is the lightest-hearted part of the film and there’s much fun to be had with the application of various large constructs that form parts of the tent-like evening wear… The joviality stops when Mary’s father, William (George Nichols) reveals that he has discovered her nascent affair with one of his clerks (O’Brien).

George O'Brien and Norma Talmadge

Mary is locked in her room but decides to elope – on a penny farthing no less – with young John and to head off for America…

Five years later and the couple have established a home stead and have a small baby. A doctor calls to tend to the sick infant and reveals that a gang led by local ruffian Jack are intent on gaining revenge on him for his part in capturing one of their own.

The gang duly arrive and John defends house supported by Mary who refuses to let him sacrifice himself. The tense battle is lent further poignancy when Mary discovers her baby has perished and confirms the death by using a mirror to try and detect any signs of breathing… the saddest of silent mimes. Realising her husband must fight on, Mary cuddles the dead baby pretending that he is asleep…and  you’d have to be made of granite not to be moved. Talmadge handles these moments with incredible grace.

Holding a mirror up to life

Moving forward to Mary’s 39th birthday in 1888 we hit one of the missing sections of this copy4 – by now Mary has three more children Blanche (Alice Day), Audrey (Mae Giraci) and John Jnr (Donald Keith – Merton of the Movies himself!). She has also been reconciled with her family.

But another crisis takes place as her husband’s affair with one Mrs. Estelle Manwaring (Gertrude Astor) is revealed by her parents. Matters come to a head when Estelle arrives and brazenly asks for Mary to let John go, claiming that she has ruined his life and cannot make him happy… it’s a point of view but we wonder what the steadfast Mrs Carlton could possibly have done…

Gertrude Astor, Donald Keith and Norma Talmadge

Mary being Mary she offers to let John go if he truly loves Estelle who senses victory only to have her hopes dashed as John returns and decides no contest… Norma’s performance of quiet resolution and dignity is persuasive and genuinely moving…

The scene shifts forward to the present day: will there be one last act for Mr and Mrs Carlton?

“It is a work of art, deftly handled with a divine touch that makes it stand out as one of the greatest screen characterizations in years…” raved Variety, before continuing...“The direction of Frank Borzage must be credited with a great part in the success that the picture is certain to have. He has taken Miss Talmadge and handled her in a manner that makes her reveal artistry such as she never displayed heretofore…”

Silent scream

Photoplay agreed saying that “The photography, particularly in the first part of the picture, is touched with real loveliness. And the scenario, by Frances Marion, is always searchingly human. But it is the personality, and the ability of Norma Talmadge that makes this a thing worth seeing.”

This final point takes us back to Jeanine Basinger’s comment: but here it was not just Norma’s talent that was engaged – there was a very personal investment in the performance that gave it such integrity. An actor must draw on personal experience to convince but there’s always control. Maybe with the right combination of director, script and circumstance, Norma Talmadge really put on a show?

We should see more… unfortunately only Wetona is currently available on DVD and it is to be hoped that Secrets and Norma's other film with Frank Borzage, The Lady (1925) will someday get the release and restoration they deserve.

*In her book Silent Stars - essential reading!
** Press comments lifted from Greta de Groat's superlative Talmadge site. Go straight there now!

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.