Summer Bachelors

Last updated

Summer Bachelors
Summer Bachelors lobby card.jpg
Lobby card
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written byJames Shelley Hamilton (scenario)
Based onSummer Widowers
by Warner Fabian
Produced by William Fox
Starring Madge Bellamy
Matt Moore
Allan Forrest
Hale Hamilton
Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg
Edited by Frances Agnew
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release date
  • December 18, 1926 (1926-12-18)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
Language Silent (English intertitles)
Trade ad for the film Summer Bachelors ad.jpg
Trade ad for the film

Summer Bachelors is a 1926 American silent romantic comedy film produced and directed by Allan Dwan. The film is based on the 1926 novel Summer Widowers by Warner Fabian and stars Madge Bellamy, Matt Moore, Allan Forrest, and Hale Hamilton. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

After observiing other peoples' bad romantic experiences, Derry Thomas no longer has any faith in men. Not believing in marriage, she organizes a club in which, in the summertime, married men can meet single women. A meeting of the club is also attended by Tony Landor, who, unlike the other male attendants, is still a bachelor. Derry falls in love with him, but hesitates to accept it. Put under hypnosis, she ends up confessing that she loves him. A judge, also a member of the club, makes himself available to the couple to perform a civil marriage.

Cast

Production

Interiors shot were filmed at Fox's New York studio, while exteriors were shot on location in Lake Placid, New York. [2] [3]

Reception

The film was considered glamorous by an Indiana critic: "Fifth Avenue, Riverside Drive, Long Island Sound, country house parties, dances on fashionable hotel roofs and in Westchester roadhouses - these are a few of the setting for 'Summer Bachelors.'" [4]

Others were scandalized. American films in 1927 were subject to censorship under local and state law. The operator of the Royal Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa, was arrested and fined $25 for showing Summer Bachelors after a citizen filed a complaint for showing an "improper motion picture." A witness from the local woman's club testified in support of the complaint that the film had objectionable scenes, the first where a woman went for a swim apparently without a bathing suit, and in a hay mowing scene where a young couple were caught in a rainstorm, sought shelter for the night, and went to sleep unchaperoned. In another scene noted in testimony, a married man with a young woman on a yacht forcibly kissed her. After filing an appeal and a $200 bond, the theater owner cut two scenes from the film. [5]

Preservation

A copy of Summer Bachelors is preserved at a film archive in Prague. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Placid, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,303.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Livingston</span> American actress and businesswoman (1895–1984)

Margaret Livingston, sometimes credited as Marguerite Livingstone or Margaret Livingstone, was an American film actress and businesswoman during the silent film era. She is remembered today as "the Woman from the City" in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madge Bellamy</span> American actress (1899–1990)

Madge Bellamy was an American stage and film actress. She was a popular leading lady in the 1920s and early 1930s. Bellamy's career declined in the sound era and ended following a romantic scandal in the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leila Hyams</span> American actress (1905–1977)

Leila Hyams was an American actress who came from a show business family. Her relatively short film career began in 1924 during the era of silent films and ended in 1936. The blonde blue-eyed ingenue and leading lady appeared in more than 50 film roles and remained a press favourite, with numerous magazine covers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George O'Brien (actor)</span> American actor (1899–1985)

George O'Brien was an American actor, popular during the silent film era and into the sound film era of the 1930s, best known today as the lead actor in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

<i>Janice Meredith</i> 1924 film by E. Mason Hopper

Janice Meredith, also known as The Beautiful Rebel, is a silent film starring Marion Davies, released in 1924 and based on the book and play A Colonial Girl written by Paul Leicester Ford and Edward Everett Rose. The play opened at the end of 1900 and was the first starring vehicle for stage actress Mary Mannering. The movie follows the actions of Janice Meredith, who helps George Washington and Paul Revere during the American Revolutionary War.

<i>Bad Company</i> (1925 film) 1925 film

Bad Company is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by Edward H. Griffith, based on a story by John C. Brownell. It stars Madge Kennedy, Conway Tearle, and Bigelow Cooper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madge Kennedy</span> American actress

Madge Kennedy was a stage, film and TV actress whose career began as a stage actress in 1912 and flourished in motion pictures during the silent film era. In 1921, journalist Heywood Broun described her as "the best farce actress in New York".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Forrest</span> American actor (1885–1941)

Allan Forrest Fisher was an American silent film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Placid Club</span>

The Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895, in a hotel on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, New York, under Melvil Dewey's leadership and according to his ideals. It was instrumental in Lake Placid's development as an internationally known resort.

<i>Bears and Bad Men</i> 1918 film

Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 American silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon and featuring Stan Laurel.

<i>The Seven Pearls</i> 1917 film

The Seven Pearls is a 1917 American silent action film serial directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie. Fragments are held by the Library of Congress.

<i>Shon the Piper</i> 1913 film

Shon the Piper is a 1913 American silent short historical romantic drama film directed by Otis Turner and starring Robert Z. Leonard and Lon Chaney. The film follows a Scottish Duke who disguises himself as a piper and falls in love with a woman by the name of Madge. The woman's father refuses to let the two marry because he wants his daughter to marry the Laird of the Isla. At the wedding, Shon steals Madge away and a battle ensues between the clans.

<i>The Joy Girl</i> 1927 film by Allan Dwan

The Joy Girl is a 1927 American two-strip Technicolor silent comedy film directed by Allan Dwan, released by Fox Film Corporation, starring Olive Borden, Neil Hamilton, and Marie Dressler, and based on the short story of the same name by May Edginton.

<i>A Modern Musketeer</i> 1917 film by Allan Dwan

A Modern Musketeer is a 1917 American silent adventure comedy film directed and written by Allan Dwan. Based on the short story, "D'Artagnan of Kansas" by E. P. Lyle, Jr., the film was produced by and stars Douglas Fairbanks. A now complete and restored print of the film still exists and is currently in the public domain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hale Hamilton</span> American actor (1880–1942)

Hale Rice Hamilton was an American actor.

<i>The Telephone Girl</i> (1927 film) 1927 film

The Telephone Girl is a 1927 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, released by Paramount Pictures, and based on the play The Woman (1911) by William C. deMille. This film starred Madge Bellamy, Holbrook Blinn, and Warner Baxter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Thomson (actor)</span> American actor

Charles Kenneth Thomson was an American character actor active on stage and on film during the silent and early sound film eras.

<i>Ankles Preferred</i> 1927 film by John G. Blystone

Ankles Preferred is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by John G. Blystone and written by James Shelley Hamilton. The film stars Madge Bellamy, Lawrence Gray, Barry Norton, Allan Forrest, Marjorie Beebe and Joyce Compton. The film was released on February 27, 1927, by Fox Film Corporation.

<i>Mother Knows Best</i> (film) 1928 film

Mother Knows Best is a 1928 American film directed by John G. Blystone, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, fictionalizing the life of vaudevillian Elsie Janis. The film was Fox's first part talkie, using the Movietone sound system which had primarily been used for synchronised music scores and effects tracks in Fox features beforehand, although as early as "Mother Machree" (1928), a single synchronous singing sequence was included in the film. The sound sections in Mother Knows Best were directed by actor Charles Judels, whilst the silent sequences were directed by John G. Blystone. The film starred Madge Bellamy, with Louise Dresser as her domineering mother, Barry Norton, and Albert Gran.

References

  1. Goble, Alan, ed. (1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 149. ISBN   3-110-95194-0.
  2. 1 2 Progressive Silent Film List: Summer Bachelors at silentera.com
  3. MacKenzie, Mary (2007). "Lake Placid and the Silent Film Industry". In Manchester, Lee (ed.). The Plains of Abraham. A History of North Elba and Lake Placid. Utica, New York. p. 361. ISBN   978-0-9755224-3-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. "Summer Bachelors Sensational Photo Play Shows Here". Jeffersonville Evening News (Indiana). February 16, 1927. p. 4.
  5. "U.S. Censorship Epidemic; Agitation Crops Up Across Nation". Variety . New York City: Variety, Inc. 84 (6): 1, 28. February 23, 1927. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  6. Vogel, Michelle (2010). Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Joy Girl. McFarland. p. 147. ISBN   978-0-786-45836-3.