Miss Lulu Bett

A year after women in the United States gained the right to vote through the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment, Hollywood finally portrayed their newfound confidence of independence in William deMille's November 1921 "Miss Lulu Bett."

Through decades of women's suffrage battles where women simply wanted the same rights as their male counterparts, the law giving women civil and political freedoms was passed in August 1920. "Miss Lulu Bett" serves as a microcosm of the suffrages battles. Most women were dependent on the male heads of the households. With the passing of the amendment millions of nominally disadvantaged females finally unshackled their metaphorical chains for freedom and independence with growing confidence.

DeMille's adapted Zona Gale's novel and her 1920 Pulitzer Prize play to reflect those changing times for women who sought newfound opportunities once denied them.

Lulu Betts, played by Lois Wilson, is the timid sister of the wife whose abusive husband uses her as a domestic servant to the household. Her outside job openings are non-existent in the small midwestern town she lives. When she discovers that the quickie marriage to a family friend is a polygamist, she returns to her sister's stifling home. A confrontation between her and her brother-in-law in a misunderstanding that quickly escalates to a life-changing decision, Lulu is bold enough to make a decision to take a path that normally wouldn't be open to her.

The older brother of Cecil B. DeMille, William was a successful film director in his own right. In the early 1900's, deMille, who changed his last name to the lower case "d" to fit into the theatre marques, was a Broadway playwright, including 'The Warrens of Virginia.' He followed his younger brother to Hollywood, directing his debut movie in 1914's 'The Only Son.' His specialty was adapting Broadway plays onto film.

William was a member in prominent Hollywood circles later in his life, co-hosting the first Academy Award ceremonies with Douglas Fairbanks in 1928 while being solo host to the awards the following year. He had also briefly served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Of all this films he directed, "Miss Lulu Bett" has been cited as his best movie and his most visible work for today's viewers.

We may never know exactly how good or bad a director William C. de Mille was. Only a handful of his films survive and only one of the surviving films, "Miss Lulu Bett", is revived with any regularity. But if a director is going to be known by one film, he or she could do much worse than "Miss Lulu Bett."

The film is a fine example of film-making on a small scale. Little touches remind audiences of the simple beauties of the moving image art form. There is the image of the lonesome and shy Lulu (played by Lois Wilson)unfurling her hair on a staircase. There is the image of Lulu and her lover Neil Cornish (Milton Stills) talking under a bower strewn with flowers. These images of delicate beauty show what carefully chosen props and settings can do to make a film with a modest budget look classy.

The story is interesting and it is not as old fashioned as some on-line reviewers have suggested. Lulu is not physically abused or held in captivity. She is abused psychologically by her overbearing brother-in-law, and her captivity is a matter of economics: she simply has no money to live on her own. The belittling of women and economic inequalities are still important issues for women.

Some people may object to certain stylistic qualities of "Miss Lulu Bett". The film has a fast enough pace, but much of the story is told through title cards. I presume that the overuse of language is a hold-over from literature: "Miss Lulu Bett" was originally a popular stage play and novel. These title cards, however, are pithy and straight-forward; they never seem to interfere with the pace of the film in any way. Film critics who ignore the device in silent films may want to watch "Miss Lulu Bett" as an example of title cards used well.

In all, "Miss Lulu Bett" is a fine drama about a female survivor of abuse. The artistry is touching and low-key, but captivating all the same. It is truly a fine work from William C. de Mille, a director whose career is now almost erased from film history.

Miss Lulu Bett is on my list of top ten silent films. Classic must-see.

This film documents the life of single women doomed to be servants of their families until they are able to escape by marriage. Coming out in 1921, it shows the ways women's lives were constrained within the home. Interesting to see how the privileged wife and the privileged mother treat the single woman like a slave, treating her no better than the man of the house. Their attitude is so condescending and cruel. They show no compassion.

Unfortunately, these attitudes are not completely outdated today nearly 100 years later.

Lois Wilson (as Lulu) is the spinsterish member of the Deacon family: "The family beast of burden, whose timid soul has failed to break the bonds of family servitude." Her brother-in-law is patriarchal Theodore Roberts (as Dwight Deacon); running the house with an iron fist, he is both a dentist and a Justice of the Peace. As the latter, he accidentally marries Ms. Wilson to his visiting brother Clarence Burton (as Ninian Deacon) while they are out for dinner. Schoolteacher Milton Sills (as Neil Cornish) is also interested in Wilson; though, curiously, nobody seems to notice this for the longest time. Ethel Wales tries, unsuccessfully, to look old enough to play the family grandmother...

Lois Wilson's fine acting ability is clearly evident; at different times, she is like both Lillian Gish and Bette Davis - see, for example the scene where she "lets her hair down" upon meeting Mr. Burton (Gish), and her confrontation, finally, with Mr. Roberts (Davis). The story is ambitious: "Lulu Bett" and the other members of the Deacon household are clearly being controlled by the "Master" Deacon; and, "Lulu" is practically a slave. Yet, the various characters are shells of something larger - and their shells are not filled with enough characterization, background, or motivation to make this movie really work.

Notable as directed by Cecil's brother William deMille.

***** Miss Lulu Bett (11/13/21) William C. de Mille ~ Lois Wilson, Theodore Roberts, Milton Sills

Lois Wilson stars in the title role of Miss Lulu Bett a rather mousy and shy young woman who lives with the Deacon family who basically treat her like a doormat. She just takes it and takes it, think Peggy Cass as Gooch in Auntie Mame or Shelley Winters as Alice Trippe in A Place In The Sun. She has no salary for her domestic work, she's simply given room and board with the Deacon Family run by the tyrannical Theodore Roberts as the father.

When Roberts black sheep brother Clarence Burton comes for a visit he's taken with her and she sees a chance for happiness and takes it. But he may or may not be slightly married and Wilson finds that out after she's run away.

Miss Lulu Bett is directed by William C. DeMille the older brother of Cecil who actually was at one time considered to be a leading Broadway playwright in the Victorian/Edwardian theater era. His kind of morality dramas were going out of style so he like his brother moved to Hollywood and the new motion picture industry. Unlike his brother Bill DeMille was given to more homespun and intimate style films with no gaudy spectacle or emphasis on sex dramas in flashback sequences in decadent times.

Theodore Roberts who was a member in good standing in Cecil B. DeMille's stock company steals the film as the arrogant pompous head of the Deacon family. At all costs preserve appearances for the family name. A far cry from his most famous part as Moses in the silent version of The Ten Commandments.

Miss Lulu Bett is an interesting study of family life on the cusp of Roaring Twenties America.