So Big (1924 film)

Last updated

So Big
So Big poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Charles Brabin
Written by Adelaide Heilbron (scenario)
Earl Hudson (adaptation)
Based on So Big
1924 novel
by Edna Ferber
Produced byEarl Hudson
Starring Colleen Moore
Cinematography Ted D. McCord
Edited by Arthur Tavares
Marion Fairfax (edit. director)
Distributed by Associated First National
Release date
  • December 28, 1924 (1924-12-28)(USA)
Running time
9 reels
CountryUnited States
Language Silent (English intertitles)
So Big, film still So Big (SAYRE 14057).jpg
So Big, film still

So Big is a 1924 American silent film based on Edna Ferber's 1924 novel of the same name which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1925. It was produced by independent producer Earl Hudson the film and distributed through Associated First National. Unseen for decades, it is considered to be a lost film. Only a trailer survives at the Library of Congress. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

As described in a review in a film magazine, [4] after returning from a tour of Europe with her father and finishing a course at a fashionable finishing school in the year 1888, Selina Peake (Moore) is shocked to find that her father is a gambler and has been killed during an accident in a gambling den. Left penniless, she gets a job as a school teacher in the Dutch colony at High Prairie. She marries Pervus DeJong (Bowers), a dull-witted and poor farmer, and soon finds that her life is one of drudgery, lightened only by her love of her son Dirk, whom she calls "So Big." When Pervus dies, Selina in old clothes, reduced to poverty, peddles vegetables. The father of a former school friend advances her a little money and, by stinting and hard work, after 18 years she has made the farm pay. Dirk (Lyon) has been educated as an architect and wins a competition. Dirk is loved by Dallas (Haver), an artist, but owes much of his success to Mrs. Paula Storm (Theby), a discontented wife who persuades him to elope with her. Selina learns of this, and begs the pair to give up the wild idea. Husband William Storm (Herbert) threatens to name Dirk as a correspondent in a divorce suit. After Selina pleads with him, he agrees to drop the matter. Thoroughly repentant, Dirk goes with Selina to see Dallas.

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleen Moore</span> American actress (1899–1988)

Colleen Moore was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era. Moore became one of the most fashionable stars of the era and helped popularize the bobbed haircut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">So Big (novel)</span> 1924 novel by Edna Ferber

So Big is a 1924 novel written by Edna Ferber. The book was inspired by the life of Antje Paarlberg in the Dutch community of South Holland, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. It was a best-seller in the United States and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Haver</span> American actress (1899–1960)

Phyllis Maude Haver was an American actress of the silent film era.

<i>Way Down East</i> 1920 film

Way Down East is a 1920 American silent romantic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. It is one of four film adaptations of the melodramatic 19th century play of the same name by Lottie Blair Parker. There were two earlier silent versions and one sound version in 1935 starring Henry Fonda. Griffith's version is particularly remembered for its climax in which Gish's character is rescued from doom on an icy river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Garon</span> Canadian actress (1900–1965)

Marie Pauline Garon was a Canadian silent film, feature film, and stage actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monte Blue</span> American actor (1887–1963)

Gerard Montgomery Blue was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player in a wide range of motion pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Merriam</span> American actress

Charlotte Merriam was an American motion picture actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosemary Theby</span> American actress (1892–1973)

Rosemary Theresa Theby was an American film actress. She appeared in some 250 films between 1911 and 1940.

<i>The Sky Pilot</i> 1921 film

The Sky Pilot is a 1921 American silent drama film based on the novel of the same name by Ralph Connor. It is directed by King Vidor and features Colleen Moore. In February 2020, the film was shown in a newly restored version at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine Lovett</span> American actress and screenwriter (1877–1958)

Josephine Lovett was an American scenario writer, adapter, screenwriter and actress, active in films from 1916 to 1935. She was married to Canadian-born director, John Stewart Robertson. She is best known for her then-risqué film Our Dancing Daughters in 1928. Her screenplays typically included a heroine who was oftentimes economically and sexually independent.

<i>So Big</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

So Big is a 1932 pre-Code American drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck. The screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, by Edna Ferber.

<i>So Big</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by Robert Wise

So Big is a 1953 American Drama Western film directed by Robert Wise and starring Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Olson.

<i>Irene</i> (1926 film) 1926 film

Irene is a 1926 American silent romantic comedy film starring Colleen Moore, and partially shot in Technicolor. The film was directed by Alfred E. Green, produced by Moore's husband John McCormick, and based on the musical Irene written by James Montgomery with music and lyrics by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy.

<i>Flaming Youth</i> (film) 1923 film

Flaming Youth is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Colleen Moore and Milton Sills, based on the novel of the same name by Samuel Hopkins Adams. The film was produced and distributed by Associated First National. In his retrospective essay "Echoes of the Jazz Age", writer F. Scott Fitzgerald cited Flaming Youth as the only film that captured the sexual revolution of the Jazz Age.

<i>We Moderns</i> 1925 film

We Moderns is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Colleen Moore. The film was produced by Moore's husband John McCormick and was released through First National Pictures. It was based on the play and novel by Israel Zangwill, which ran for 22 performances in 1924 at the Gaiety Theatre in New York, produced and directed by Harrison Grey Fiske and starring Helen Hayes and Isabel Irving.

<i>The Perfect Flapper</i> 1924 film by John Francis Dillon

The Perfect Flapper is a 1924 American romantic comedy film directed by Earl Hudson and starring Colleen Moore. This was Moore's second "flapper film" after Flaming Youth. It was released after Through the Dark and Painted People.

<i>Twinkletoes</i> 1926 film

Twinkletoes is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Charles Brabin and starring Colleen Moore. The film, as with most of Moore's vehicles at this time, was produced by her husband John McCormick with the couple distributing through Moore's resident studio First National. This film is one of Moore's surviving films from the late silent era and is available on DVD.

<i>Rugged Water</i> 1925 film

Rugged Water is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Irvin Willat and written by James Shelley Hamilton and Joseph C. Lincoln. The film stars Lois Wilson, Wallace Beery, Warner Baxter, Phyllis Haver, Dot Farley, J. P. Lockney, James Mason, and Willard Cooley. The film was released on August 17, 1925, by Paramount Pictures.

<i>Painted People</i> 1924 film

Painted People is a 1924 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Clarence G. Badger and starring Colleen Moore. It was produced and distributed by Associated First National Pictures.

<i>The Desert Flower</i> (film) 1925 film

The Desert Flower is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Irving Cummings and written by June Mathis. It is based on the 1924 play The Desert Flower by Don Mullally. The film stars Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Kate Price, Gino Corrado, Fred Warren, and Frank Brownlee. The film was released on June 21, 1925, by First National Pictures.

References

  1. Progressive Silent Film List: So Big at silentera.com
  2. So Big; allmovie.com
  3. So Big at TheGreatStars.com; Lost Films Wanted (Wayback Machine). Retrieved July 21, 2018
  4. Sewell, Charles S. (January 17, 1925). "So Big; Colleen Moore Gives Remarkably Fine Portrayal of Old Lady in Touching Story of Mother Love". The Moving Picture World. 72 (3). New York City: Chalmers Publishing Co.: 267–268. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  5. The Shadow Stage (review), Photoplay (March 1925), p. 45