Flames of Passion is a 1922 British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith.

Flames of Passion
An American lobby card using the American title A Woman's Secret
Directed byGraham Cutts
Written byHerbert Wilcox
M. V. Wilcox
Produced byHerbert Wilcox
StarringMae Marsh
C. Aubrey Smith
CinematographyRené Guissart
Production
company
Graham-Wilcox Productions
Distributed byAstra Film
Release date
  • November 1922 (1922-11)
Running time
9 reels
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles

The film was made by the newly formed Graham-Wilcox Productions company, a joint venture between Cutts and producer Herbert Wilcox. The entrepreneurial Wilcox tempted American star Marsh to England with a high salary offer, believing this would improve the film's marketability in the U.S.[1] She was paid £1,000 a week.[2]

The gamble paid off as it became the first post-war British film to be sold to the U.S. The final reel of the film was filmed in the bi-pack color process Prizma Color.[3]

Plot

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The wife of a wealthy barrister seduces her chauffeur, with whom she falls in love. She gives birth to a baby, apparently without her husband knowing anything about her pregnancy.

The child is killed by the chauffeur during a car accident—he was visibly drunk when driving. The result is a showpiece trial at the Old Bailey, presumably of the chauffeur on a charge of infanticide, in which the woman at first tries to protect her lover, but is forced finally under cross-examination to make a dramatic public confession that the dead infant was hers. By the end of the film, she returns to her husband.

Cast

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Reception

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Flames of Passion proved controversial with critics, many of whom found the subject matter lurid, sensationalist and distasteful. Cinemagoers had no such qualms, and turned the film into a big box-office hit, Wilcox's first commercial success.[3]

This was the first British film to be sold for distribution in the United States following World War I where it was shown under the title A Woman's Secret.[4]

Preservation status

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A print with Dutch titles exists at the British Film Institute.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Herbert Wilcox BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 21 September 2010
  2. ^ "Anna Neagle's Herbert Takes On A New Star". Truth. No. 2756. Brisbane. 18 January 1953. p. 22. Retrieved 17 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ a b Graham Cutts BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 21 September 2010
  4. ^ Waldman, Harry (1994). Beyond Hollywood's Grasp: American Filmmakers Abroad, 1914-1945. Scarecrow Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-8108-2841-3.
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