The Love Flower

"The Love Flower" kept me on the edge of my seat with suspense. What a great film! Miss Dempster was very enigmatic and strangely intoxicating as the young daughter who is willing to kill the police detective who is after her father for murder. They hide out on a South Sea island for years, but the detective pursues them to the end.

Richard Barthelmess was a delight to watch as the young sailor who is tricked into bringing the detective to the island. Richard's face was literally gorgeous. No wonder Griffith preferred him over other male actors in his stock company. Griffith's personal attraction to Miss Dempster was also apparent, especially in the beach and water scenes with her scantily dressed outfits revealing ... well, I'll leave you guessing there.

If you are a fan of D.W. Griffith's work don't miss this film! It is his most contemporary and one of his most fascinating movie projects.

The Love Flower (1920) : Brief Review -

Quite a mix from Griffith but the fact remains intact that such great stories could only be made in that era. Relatable even after 100 years. Forget all those heavy content classics of Griffith, forget those epics, forget those melodramas, those tragedies just for 95 minutes and enjoy this simple but interesting film with no load on your brain. DW Griffith was a completely different director for audience and critics after 'Birth Of The Nation' (1915) and 'Intolerance' (1916). And he even had 10 more classics in those 4 years before making this film so naturally the expectations were different. Contrary to his favourable genre and themes, The Love Flower came as a nice fun break. I am calling it a fun film because i enjoyed it a lot, not that it has any comedy or such stuff. Griffith again made his heroine to do the role of a hero, no directors of that time were doing it continuously as he did and very few directors have done it even till date. Griffith had won me there. In the film, A man murders his wife's lovers and escapes with his daughter to the South Pacific. A detective pursues him, joined by a young man who eventually falls in love with the daughter and then her attempts to save her father begin. It was quite a mix from Griffith, i mean multiple themes together in one narrative and all with dramatic proportions. Nevertheless, the story was itself great for its time and it is great even today. Highly relatable to today's daughters. If somebody had remade this film, I'm sure people would have liked it. I haven't seen much of Carol Dempster's work so for me it was like a fresh face in Griffith film. She was good fortunately. I loved George MacQuarrie in father's role the most. Overall, not a typical Griffith film but a fine typical film afterall.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

"The Love Flower" is a real mixed bag from director D.W. Griffith. On one hand, the story itself has some holes and doesn't make a lot of sense at times. And, the intertitle cards are the worst written ones I've ever seen. Yet, in spite of all this, I could not hate the movie because the direction and cinematography were so good.

When the film began, I felt vaguely ill as I tried to read the horrid intertitle cards. Most of the worst were used to describe the daughter, a girl described this way on one card--'Girlish dreams sighed into the pink ear of a rose beneath the azure southern skies'. What does this even mean?! This was not the only time--no many more times the very prosaic writer made me ill!

The story begins in the Caribbean. Some guy had apparently written a bad check and ran off to the islands with his wife and daughter to evade the law. However, his wife was a total skank--and was fooling around on him. When he entered his home to find the wife and her lover, the lover tried to murder the husband and the husband killed the guy in self-defense. However, with his criminal record AND a wife who was going to lie about the attack, he and his loyal daughter take to the South Seas in search of a life of solitude. However, there is a crazed cop--one who vows to search EVERYWHERE to find the killer. And, there's also a nice man (Richard Barthelmess) who meets the daughter. What becomes of all this?

The plot had many problems. How could Barthelmess fall in love this quickly and sacrifice so much for a lady he didn't even know? Why was it okay for this lady to be a repeated attempted murderess in order to protect her father?! While the plot is hard to believe at times, the film did feature many amazingly good and difficult shots for 1920. Some underwater footage as well as the view from the rope bridge were incredible--as was the island footage. Overall, a very mixed bag--with lots to like and a bit to make you ill!

By the way, IMDb lists this film at 70 minutes but it ran 96.

Love Flower, The (1920)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film about a father (George MacQuarrie) who murders his wife's lover and then runs off to a South Sea island with their daughter (Carol Dempster). After a few years a detective shows up looking for him and the daughter decides it's her duty to keep her father with her. A fairly weak story and a stupid message really drags this film down but there are still quite a bit of good things working for the film. The cinematography by G.W. Bitzer is certainly the highlight, especially a couple scenes that take place under water. The three leads all do a decent job but poor Dempster is clearly playing a role meant for Lillian Gish. She can't pull off all the emotions but she does do a good job at playing a young girl.

This film has such a bad reputation that I pleasantly surprised when I watched it. No, it is not one of Griffith's great films, but I was entertained by it.

The film was shot as one of three that Griffith had contracted to make for First National. He rushed through them so none of the three represent Griffith at his best. However, that doesn't mean that they do not have their rewards.

I am not a fan of Carol Dempster. In fact I think she is generally an awful actress (although she did get better). Griffith was in love with her (she did not reciprocate) and saw her as an ideal of old fashioned Southern beauty. When he cast her that way she was wooden, ugly and boring to distraction. She was completely lacking in screen presence.

I never thought I would be writing these words but in this film I actually enjoyed watching her. In this case Griffith, for once, cast Carol in a role she could play (at least most of the time). She plays the rather athletic role, of a girl raised by her father is fairly primitive circumstances in the tropics. She climbs cliffs, dives off them into the sea. Swims underwater, and generally romps around looking wonderfully disheveled and doing nearly everything except swinging from a vine. She obviously enjoys it and she actually looks (am I really saying this) beautiful when she does it. She even has a presence on the screen. However, when she has a dramatic scene, she loses all her charm and confidence. Her presence dwindles to nothing and she becomes an ugly and boring actress. Fortunatly there are only a few of these moments.

Richard Barthelmess does his usual excellent job of acting. He has great presence regardless of if he is being athletic, cheerful or dramatic. He is clearly Carol's superior in acting. He even manages to make her look good in a few dicey scenes.

So, no, this is not a great film or even a significant film, but it can be fun and enjoyable. If you like Griffith and you have nothing better to do I might even recommend it.