The Love Flower is a 1920 American silent drama film produced by D. W. Griffith and released through the then nascent United Artist company of which Griffith was a founding partner.[3][4]
After serving a prison sentence for a crime he did not commit, Thomas Bevan (George MacQuarrie) attempts to rebuild his life. He remarries, but his new wife (Florence Short) resents his close relationship with his daughter, Stella (Carol Dempster). When Secret Service agent Matthew Crane (Anders Randolf), the man responsible for Bevan's wrongful conviction, returns to town, tensions escalate. Bevan's wife begins an affair, and a loyal servant (Adolph Lestina) informs him shortly before a business trip. Bevan returns, confronts the situation, and during the ensuing altercation, a man is accidentally killed.
Bevan and Stella flee by motorboat, detaining Crane long enough to escape. They settle on a remote South Sea island with one servant.
While trading on a nearby island, Stella meets Bruce Sanders (Richard Barthelmess), a wealthy adventurer. Although interested in him, she suspects he may be associated with the authorities and avoids him. Puzzled, Sanders returns to the mainland and meets Crane, unaware of his intentions. He later brings Crane to the island.
Crane arrests Bevan. Believing Sanders acted deliberately, Stella sabotages the boat, stranding all four on the island. When a ship later washes ashore, Sanders destroys it to demonstrate loyalty. Stella responds by confessing her feelings for him.
Eventually, Crane's colleagues arrive. Bevan refuses to return with them. In the resulting struggle, Crane believes Bevan has drowned. Stella and Sanders depart but later return to rescue him.[5]
Frame showing Carol Dempster portraying Stella Bevan
Griffith filmed The Love Flower simultaneously with The Idol Dancer (1920) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Nassau, Bahamas, in December 1919 to fulfill a contract with First National Pictures,[6] but after previewing the film on April 2, 1920, before the American Newspaper Publishers Association in New York, he purchased the rights to The Love Flower for $400,000.[3] Additional underwater footage of Dempster was shot in Florida along with scenes of her and MacQuarrie against a black background. The reedited film was then released by United Artists.
↑ The American Film Institute (1988). The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911–20.
↑ "Reviews: The Love Flower". Exhibitors Herald. Vol.11, no.14. New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company. October 2, 1920. p.85. Bevan has served an undeserved term in prison. He marries a second time. His wife is unsympathetic toward his daughter, Stella, because of her husband's great love for and comradeship with his daughter. Matthew Crane of the Secret Service, who sent Bevan to prison, comes to the town where Bevan is now living. Bevan's wife is unfaithful, and a loyal servant hurries after Bevan, who is going on a business trip, to acquaint him with the treachery. He goes back to verify the statement. A fight ensues and the man is accidentally killed. Crane hears of the murder and intercepts Stella on her way to the motorboat which Bevan has purchased to make a getaway in, but Bevan, coming up from the rear, makes a captive of Crane until he and his daughter have embarked. They eventually land on a South Sea island and live there alone with one servant, happily. Visiting a nearby island to trade with a native, Stella meets Bruce Sanders, a wealthy plantation owner out for adventure. Stella wants to be friends with him, but the haunting fear that he may be an officer come to arrest her father forbids this. The boy is greatly puzzled at her cold manner. He returns to the mainland. Crane is there, hot on Bevan's trail. Crane persuades Sanders to take him to the island upon which Bevan and his daughter live, and the boy, unsuspecting, gladly does so. On their arrival at the island, Crane arrests Bevan, and Stella, believing Sanders has brought the officer there deliberately, refuses to have anything to do with him. Stella sinks Sanders' boat and maroons all four on the island. When the ship is washed ashore, Sanders, to prove his good faith, sinks it again. Stella thereupon confesses that she loves him. Crane's comrades send help to him. Bevan refuses to go on the boat. A dramatic fight ensues, and Crane believes Bevan has been drowned. How Bevan is saved, how Sanders and Stella go away with Crane and the officers to be married, only to return later to get Bevan, marks an interesting conclusion to "The Love Flower."
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