Smouldering Fires | |
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Directed by | Clarence Brown Charles Dorian (2nd unit) |
Written by | Melville W. Brown |
Screenplay by | Sada Cowan Howard Higgin |
Story by | Sada Cowan Margaret Deland Howard Higgin Intertitles: Dwinelle Benthall |
Produced by | Carl Laemmle |
Starring | Laura La Plante Malcolm McGregor Tully Marshall Wanda Hawley Pauline Frederick |
Cinematography | Jackson Rose |
Edited by | Edward Schroeder |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes 7,356 feet on 8 reels |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Smouldering Fires is a 1925 Universal silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Pauline Frederick and Laura La Plante. The movie's plot is similar to the 1933 talking picture Female , starring Ruth Chatterton. [1] [2]
Copies of this film are archived by UCLA and George Eastman House. In 1953, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. [3] It is available on video, and numerous prints exist in private collections. [4]
As described in a film magazine, [5] Jane Vale (Frederick), a forty year old business woman who ran a great industrial plant left to her by her father, awoke to the realization that she was in love with Robert Elliott (McGregor), a youth scarcely more than half her age. This lad first attracted her attention by opposing her policy in a matter of production. She was passing at the time and heard him refer to her executive staff as "yes" men. Her general manager was for firing the boy on the spot, but instead, she made him her assistant. As a result, gossip spread about the factory through the envious mouths of his fellow employees. Feeling bound by his honor to defend her, on an occasion when a tough employee makes a scurrilous remark, the boy strikes him, knocking him down. Jane sees the fight although she is not seen by any of her workers. Then she gets the thrill of her life when, Elliott, the lad, announces that he is engaged to marry Miss Vale. Just before their marriage, Jane's young sister, Dorothy (La Plante), returns home from college and pays her a visit. The latter is about Elliott's age. The two immediately fall in love with each other, but conceal their growing passion out of love for Jane. Elliott goes through with the marriage, and later, on a mountain climb, circumstances result in Dorothy falling into his arms. It is then that they decide to tell Jane. But again they fail when they realize the pain it will cause her. After a party which was made up of Dorothy's younger friends, Jane discovers that Elliott and Dorothy love each other. Jane pretends that she has fallen out of love with Robert and seeks a divorce. In this way, she paves the way for his freedom and her sister's happiness.
Members of "The Committee:"
Reviewer Hal Erickson wrote that the film "is a first-rate silent 'soap opera', immaculately performed by its superb cast and brilliantly directed." While praising the American release version, he made note that the "slightly longer European version is even better, with some remarkably mature (albeit non-lurid) setpieces". [6]
In The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era, author David W. Menefee writes that the film "presented Pauline (Frederick) in a memorable light, successfully carrying off the role of a woman business executive." [7]
In Movies and American Society, author Steven J. Ross wrote that Smouldering Fires was "a cautionary tale of what happens when businesswomen become too successful." [8]
Laura La Plante was an American film actress, whose more notable performances were in the silent era.
Pauline Frederick was an American stage and film actress.
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
The Wizard of Oz is a 1925 American silent fantasy-adventure comedy film directed by Larry Semon, who also performs in the lead role as a Kansas farmhand and later in the story disguised as the Scarecrow.
The Cat and the Canary is a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, who is Annabelle, Charlie, and Paul's uncle, and the reading of his will twenty years later. Annabelle inherits her uncle's fortune, but when she and her family spend the night in his haunted mansion, they are stalked by a mysterious figure. Meanwhile, a lunatic mainly known as the Cat escapes from an asylum and hides in the mansion.
The Last Warning is a 1928 American mystery film directed by Paul Leni, and starring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, and Margaret Livingston.
Alice Adams is a 1935 romantic drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Katharine Hepburn. It was made by RKO and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The screenplay was by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner, and Jane Murfin. The film was adapted from the novel Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington. The music score was by Max Steiner and Roy Webb, and the cinematography by Robert De Grasse. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress.
The Elliott Cutoff was a covered wagon road that branched off the Oregon Trail at the Malheur River where present-day Vale, Oregon, United States is today. The first portion of the road was originally known as the Meek Cutoff after Stephen Meek, a former trapper who led over 1,000 emigrants into the Harney Basin in 1845. There were considerable difficulties for the 1845 train, and after reaching a hill known as Wagontire, the people left Meek and split into groups. They turned north at the Deschutes River and finally returned to the traditional Oregon Trail near The Dalles.
Malcolm McGregor was an American actor of the silent era. McGregor appeared in more than 50 films between 1922 and 1936. He was born in Newark, New Jersey and died in Hollywood, California.
The Sporting Venus is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by Marshall Neilan. The film was the second MGM release of Neilan, and starred his wife, actress Blanche Sweet, who allegedly sported the lowest waistline of 1925. This is the first of two feature films that paired Ronald Colman with Blanche Sweet, the second being His Supreme Moment, which was released in May 1925.
The Single Standard is a 1929 American romantic drama film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed by veteran John S. Robertson and starring Greta Garbo, Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown.
The Teaser is a 1925 American silent romantic comedy drama film written by Lewis Milestone, Edward T. Lowe Jr., and Jack Wagner based upon the play of the same name by Adelaide Matthews and Martha M. Stanley. The film was directed by William A. Seiter for Universal Pictures, and stars Laura La Plante, Pat O'Malley, Hedda Hopper, and Walter McGrail.
Broken Laws is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Roy William Neill, remarkable for the appearance of Dorothy Davenport, who is billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid".
Women Love Diamonds is a 1927 American black and white silent melodrama directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Pauline Starke, Owen Moore, and Lionel Barrymore.
The Love That Lives is a 1917 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film stars Pauline Frederick and was directed by Robert G. Vignola. The film is based on the story "Flames of Sacrifice", by Scudder Middleton.
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 Lost Chord is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Wilfred Noy and starring David Powell, Alice Lake, and Dagmar Godowsky. It is based on Arthur Sullivan's 1877 song "The Lost Chord." Noy had previously made the film in Great Britain in 1917 and this remake marked his American debut.
The Little Tease is a 1913 silent black and white film directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by Biograph Company and starring Henry B. Walthall and Mae Marsh.
Strongheart is a 1914 American silent Western black and white film directed by James Kirkwood Sr., produced by Henry B. Harris, written by Frank E. Woods and starring Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore, Blanche Sweet and Antonio Moreno. The film was supervised by D.W. Griffith.
The Sting of the Lash is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Henry King and starring Pauline Frederick, Clyde Fillmore, and Lawson Butt.
Smouldering Fires, 1925.