Plot Summary - Melodramatic silent film telling the tale of young Nellie (Dorothy Phillips), wannabee actress from the sticks who encounters a theatrical troupe on her way to NYC to seek her "triumph" on the stage. She meets a producer who is looking for a replacement for an actress who "got married" (so being 1917, of course, she can no longer work). Nell joins the troupe and soon meets a dramatic critic (Lon Chaney) who hopes to get the play he wrote ("Triumph - A Story of the 16th Century in 4 Acts", or something like that) produced - he becomes somewhat of her new Svengali, convincing her that she was given beauty for a reason, to use to get what she wants in life. She immediately sets out to find out exactly what her beauty can do - and uses her feminine wiles to get the producer to stage Chaney's play. Seeing that pretty Nell is pretty much clinging to Chaney all the time, the producer comes to realize he's been used and cans the idea of putting on his rival's play. High melodrama, murder, and pill popping to follow.
Review - This was a decent film, not a great one, but I'm partial to silent films from the teens actually (I love the clothes - and also that feeling of being back in time I get, especially for the really old films) - unfortunately the film is incomplete (the end part lost and summarized on screen via titles), and there was some nitrate decomposition in this. But I did enjoy seeing this film - especially to see one my all-time favorite silent film actors, Lon Chaney, in one of his earlier roles. His immense star quality really shines through, I must say - I love that guy! Rating - 7.5/10 stars
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3 comments:
Thank you for the review. Seven stars out of how many?
You might enjoying reading some of the film reviews on my MySpace profile. Please, feel free to drop by and peruse my archives. You can find the link by clicking on my name above.
And by the way, boo.
Hi - the rating is 7 out of 10 stars. Thanks for noticing that, I just added a thing at the top of my blog mentioning the rating system.
Janet- Thanks for the review. I've been a Chaney fan since I was 1966, when I was 10. I've always wanted to see this movie and hope someday it will come out on DVD. Living in NJ there aren't any film fests like Cinecon. Arrgghh. Also, as an aside it's great to know other people like /appreciate old film too. best- Marc McLearen
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