Proud Flesh is a 1925 American silent comedy-drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Eleanor Boardman, Pat O'Malley, and Harrison Ford in a romantic triangle.[1]
| Proud Flesh | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Film still | |
| Directed by | King Vidor |
| Written by | Harry Behn Agnes Christine Johnston |
| Based on | Proud Flesh by Lawrence Irving Rising |
| Starring | Eleanor Boardman Pat O'Malley Harrison Ford |
| Cinematography | John Arnold |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Plot
editA San Francisco earthquake orphan, Fernanda (Boardman) is adopted and raised as a gentlewoman by relatives in Spain. As a girl she is courted by Don Jaime (Ford), but spurns him and returns to her gauche relatives in California. There she falls in love with a young bathtub manufacturer, Pat (O’Malley).[2]
Cast
edit- Eleanor Boardman as Fernanda
- Pat O'Malley as Pat O'Malley
- Harrison Ford as Don Jaime
- Trixie Friganza as Mrs. McKee
- William J. Kelly as Mr. McKee
- Rosita Marstini as Vicente
- Sōjin Kamiyama as Wong
- Evelyn Sherman as Spanish Aunt
- George Nichols as Spanish Uncle
- Margaret Seddon as Mrs. O'Malley
- Lillian Elliott as Mrs. Casey
- Priscilla Bonner as San Francisco Girl
- Joan Crawford as Bit Part (uncredited)
Reception
editMordaunt Hall, critic for The New York Times, called the film "a bright entertainment in which there are a slight touch of heart interest and plenty of amusement."[3]
Theme
editVidor made this film, the last of a cycle of four films, in the years just following World War I. The isolationist outlook of many Americans with regard to war-ravaged Europe prompted Vidor to locate the sources of “sexual experimentation and marital triangles” and other social infidelities of the Jazz Age in the Old World. Decadent European manners were contrasted with the fundamentally commonsense virtues that Vidor believed would prevail in the United States.[4]
Footnotes
edit- ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: Proud Flesh". silentera.com. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
- ^ Baxter 1976 p. 20: Baxter refers to O’Malley’s Pat as “manufacturer, not “plumber”
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (April 14, 1925). "The Screen". The New York Times.
- ^ Durgnat and Simmon 1988 p. 54, p. 56
References
edit- Baxter, John. 1976. King Vidor. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544.
- Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. King Vidor, American. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-05798-8
External links
edit- Proud Flesh at IMDb
- Proud Flesh at the TCM Movie Database