The Red Lily | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fred Niblo |
Written by | Fred Niblo Bess Meredyth |
Produced by | Fred Niblo |
Starring | Ramon Novarro Enid Bennett |
Cinematography | Victor Milner |
Edited by | Lloyd Nosler |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Red Lily is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Ramon Novarro, Enid Bennett, and Wallace Beery. [1] A print of the film exists. [2]
Marise La Noue (Enid Bennett) and Jean Leonnec (Ramon Novarro) are young lovers who elope to Paris; however, they are separated shortly after their arrival, leading to the downward spiral of both their lives: She becomes a prostitute known as 'the Red Lily', and he learns the ways of the underworld from Bo-Bo (Wallace Beery).
The film industry created the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry in 1916 in an effort to preempt censorship by states and municipalities, and it used a list of subjects called the "Thirteen Points" which film plots were to avoid. However, prostitution was not explicitly barred so long as it was not forcible (i.e., white slavery), and aspects of the prostitute’s work were not present in the film. [3]
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.
The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.
Ramón Gil Samaniego, known professionally as Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican actor. He began his career in American silent films in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box-office attractions of the 1920s and early 1930s. Novarro was promoted by MGM as a "Latin lover" and became known as a sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino. He is recognized as the first Latin American actor to succeed in Hollywood.
The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 American silent Western romance film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro. Based on the 1919 story The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, which introduced the masked hero, Zorro, the screenplay was adapted by Fairbanks and Eugene Miller.
Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of prominent character actor Noah Beery Jr. He was billed as either Noah Beery or Noah Beery Sr. depending upon the film.
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, also known as The Student Prince and Old Heidelberg, is a 1927 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer silent drama film based on the 1901 play Old Heidelberg by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster. It was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and stars Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer.
Enid Eulalie Bennett was an Australian silent film actress, mostly active in American film.
The Round-Up is a 1920 American silent Western film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Wallace Beery. The movie was written by Edmund Day and Tom Forman, directed by George Melford, and based on Day's play that was a huge hit for Roscoe Arbuckle's older cousin Macklyn Arbuckle and Julia Dean on the Broadway stage in 1907. It was Macklyn in the play who created the famous phrase used in advertisements of the film, nobody loves a fat man.
The Woman God Forgot is a 1917 American silent romance film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar. Art direction for the film was done by Wilfred Buckland.
The Enemy is a 1927 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Lillian Gish, Ralph Forbes and Ralph Emerson. Actor Joel McCrea made an early appearance as an extra.
The Sea Hawk is a 1924 American silent adventure film about an English noble sold into slavery who escapes and turns himself into a pirate king. Directed by Frank Lloyd, the screen adaptation was written by J. G. Hawks based upon the 1915 Rafael Sabatini novel of the same name. It premiered on June 2, 1924, in New York City, twelve days before its theatrical debut.
Thy Name Is Woman is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Ramon Novarro and Barbara La Marr. A copy of the film survives in the Turner Archive. The film made an estimated profit of more than $100,000.
Devil-May-Care is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Sidney Franklin with a Technicolor sequence of the Albertina Rasch Dancers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 27, 1929 and was Ramon Novarro's talkie debut.
Trifling Women is a 1922 American silent romantic drama film directed by Rex Ingram. It is credited with boosting the careers of its leads, Barbara La Marr and Ramon Novarro. It has been described as Ingram's most personal film.
Son of India is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by Jacques Feyder and starring Ramón Novarro and Madge Evans. The film is based on the 1882 novel Mr. Isaacs written by Francis Marion Crawford.
The Lady is a 1925 American silent drama film starring Norma Talmadge and directed by Frank Borzage. Talmadge's own production company produced the film with distribution by First National Pictures.
The Whip is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur that is based on the play of the same name by Henry Hamilton and Cecil Raleigh. The film stars Alma Hanlon, June Elvidge, and Irving Cummings. It also features Bobby Vernon, Wallace Beery, as well as Gloria Swanson in one of her early film roles. The film survives and has been released on DVD.
La Comédie du bonheur is a French-Italian film directed by Marcel L'Herbier as a dual-language production. It was filmed in Rome in the early months of 1940, but after Italy joined World War II on the side of Germany, the French and Italian versions of the film were completed separately. The Italian version was released in December 1940 under the title Ecco la felicità!. The French version was released in July 1942.
The Lure is a 1914 American silent drama film directed by Alice Guy Blaché starring James O'Neill, Fraunie Fraunholz, Kirah Markham, and Claire Whitney. The Lure was an adaptation of a controversial play by George Scarborough that gives a sympathetic depiction of social pressures leading women into prostitution.
Unseen Hands is a 1924 American silent horror film directed by Jacques Jaccard and starring Wallace Beery, Joseph J. Dowling and Fontaine La Rue. This was apparently the only horror film Jaccard directed, although he made over 80 films from 1914 to 1936. It was also producer Walker Coleman Graves Jr.'s only screenwriting credit.