We Moderns | |
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![]() Lobby card | |
Directed by | John Francis Dillon |
Written by | June Mathis (scenario) |
Based on | We Moderns by Israel Zangwill |
Produced by | John McCormick |
Starring | Colleen Moore |
Cinematography | Ted D. McCord |
Edited by | Edwin Robbins |
Production company | John McCormick Productions |
Distributed by | First National Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 7 reels; between 6,609 and 6,656 feet |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
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, [1] 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. [2]
As described in a film magazine review, [3] Mary Sundale is a young woman who spurns her childhood sweetheart to attach herself to a large group of riotous, semi-artistic young people and becomes infatuated with a superficial poet and critic. One night this poet becomes too bold in his advances and is thrashed by the man who has been rejected. On a later night, the group holds a party in a dirigible. The ship crashes and fear grips the revelers. Mary, now disgusted with the group and all it represents, mends her manner of living and plans a future with the man who has always sincerely loved her.
Portions of the film were shot on location in and around London while Colleen was in the city during her European tour, which was undertaken to promote her films So Big and Sally. Those portions were directed by her husband and depicted a scavenger hunt, so that the production could visit many famous and recognizable London locations . A car was purchased specifically for the film and was shipped back to the states so that the film could be completed at the studio. Colleen had to acquire a special permit to drive.
The film was intended to be an English look at the flapper, and the story shared many of the same elements of Colleen's star-making Flaming Youth. As in Flaming Youth, Colleen's brother Cleeve had a part in this film as well. He played the brother of Colleen's character.
With no record of any prints of We Moderns located in any film archives, [4] it is a lost film.
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.
Milton George Gustavus Sills was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.
Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), registered as FBO Pictures Corp., was an American film studio of the silent era, a midsize producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an Anglo-American import-export company. Robertson-Cole began distributing films in the United States that December and opened a Los Angeles production facility in 1920. Late that year, R-C entered into a working relationship with East Coast financier Joseph P. Kennedy. A business reorganization in 1922 led to its assumption of the FBO name, first for all its distribution operations and ultimately for its own productions as well. Through Kennedy, the studio contracted with Western leading man Fred Thomson, who grew by 1925 into one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Thomson was just one of several silent screen cowboys with whom FBO became identified.
Her Wild Oat is a 1927 American silent comedy film made by First National Pictures, directed by Marshall Neilan, and starring Colleen Moore. The screenplay was written by Gerald C. Duffy, based on a story by Howard Irving Young.
Smiling Irish Eyes (1929) is a Vitaphone American pre-Code musical film with Technicolor sequences. The film is now considered a lost film. However, the Vitaphone discs still exist.
The Scarlet Letter is a 1934 American film directed by Robert G. Vignola and based on the 1850 novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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.
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.
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Dinty is a 1920 American silent comedy drama film written by Marshall Neilan and John McDermott specifically for Wesley Barry, a young actor known for his freckled complexion. Prominent among the supporting players were Colleen Moore, Marjorie Daw, Pat O'Malley, and Noah Beery.
Forsaking All Others is a 1922 American silent drama film starring actress Colleen Moore and directed by Emile Chautard for Universal Studios. It was made before Colleen became famous as a flapper but did visit some of the same subjects her later films would.
Broken Chains is a 1922 American silent melodrama film directed by Allen Holubar. Starring Colleen Moore, Malcolm McGregor, and Ernest Torrence, it was based on the winning story from a scenario contest held by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and the Chicago Daily News. A print of Broken Chains is preserved at the George Eastman House archive.
April Showers is a 1923 American silent romantic film directed by Tom Forman starring Colleen Moore. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
Through the Dark is a 1924 American silent mystery crime drama film directed by George W. Hill, and starring Colleen Moore and Forrest Stanley as the popular jewel thief and sometimes detective character Boston Blackie. The film's scenario, written by Frances Marion, is based on the short story "The Daughter of Mother McGinn" by Jack Boyle, which appeared in serial form in Cosmopolitan. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions and distributed through Goldwyn Pictures.
Sally is a 1925 American silent romantic comedy film starring Colleen Moore. The film was directed by Alfred E. Green, produced by Moore's husband John McCormick, and based on the musical Sally written by Guy Bolton and Clifford Grey that was adapted to film by June Mathis. The play was a Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. production written specifically for Marilyn Miller that opened on December 21, 1920, at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. It ran for 570 performances.
The Golden Princess is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Clarence G. Badger and written by Frances Agnew based upon an 1869 story by Bret Harte. The film stars Betty Bronson, Neil Hamilton, Phyllis Haver, Joseph J. Dowling, Edgar Kennedy, George Irving, and Norma Wills. The film was released on October 5, 1925, by Paramount Pictures.
Mary of the Movies is a 1923 American silent semi-autobiographical comedy film based on the career of Marion Mack. It was written by Mack and her husband Louis Lewyn, and stars Mack and Creighton Hale. Hale and director John McDermott play fictionalized versions of themselves in the film, which was also directed by McDermott.
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.
The Wheel is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Margaret Livingston, Harrison Ford, and Claire Adams.
Siege is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Svend Gade and starring Virginia Valli, Eugene O'Brien, and Mary Alden.