Si tu vois ma nièce

ELLA CINDERS (First National, 1926), a John McCormick production, directed by Alfred E. Green, is a star vehicle for Colleen Moore, a popular silent screen flapper of the 1920s, in one of her more notable comedies of her career that has become forgotten through the passage of time. It's a Hollywood story taken from both comic strip character and Cinderella fairy tale, and reminiscent to Mabel Normand performance in THE EXTRA GIRL (1923). Similarities in theme makes it quite easy to confuse these two, especially when both characters are seen disrupting the studio when encountered by a lion. While THE EXTRA GIRL switches to melodrama from time to time, ELLA CINDERS is pure comedy that makes good use of Moore's comedic talents.

Opening title card: "The Cinders residence in Roseville - where the first bowl of wax bananas appeared on an American sideboard." Ella Cinders (Colleen Moore) works like a slave for her wicked stepmother (Vera Lewis) and equally wicked stepsisters known as the Pills, Lotta (Doris Baker) and Prissy (Emily Gerdes), waiting on them hand and foot. Her one and only friend is Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes), a young man employed for the Union Ice Company, who in reality happens to be George Waite, a football hero and graduate from the University of Illinois as well as being the son of a millionaire (revealed on screen through a close up shot of a newspaper clipping)who disapproves of Ella. During a meeting of the Pollyanna Club held at the Cinders household every second Thursday of the month, where members get to "cheat at cards," Ella overhears her stepmother's intention on having Lotta representing Roseville by entering her in a movie contest sponsored by the Gem Film Company, with the prize being a trip to Hollywood and a chance to appear in a motion picture. Seeing this an opportunity in breaking away from the Pills, Ella earns the extra money needed for entrance fees and studio portrait taken of herself through babysitting. As she is poses to have her picture taken (one point being a strong resemblance of Lillian Gish), the photographer (Harry Allen) snapshots the very moment Ella becomes cross-eyed (like Ben Turpin) as she blows away a fly resting on her nose. It so happens that this is the picture that makes it to the judges. At the ball, where the winner's name is to be announced, to everyone's surprise, Ella's picture is the winner. After a merry send-off from the community (with the exception of the Pills) at the train station where the mayor (Jed Prouty) makes a speech, Ella takes off for Hollywood. Upon her arrival, she taxis over to the studio to find the Gem Film Company shut down and told by a guard that the contest was a scam and the "sharpies" arrested. Now stranded in the land of make-believe, and refusing to go back home in fear of being a laughing stock, Ella makes the best of her situation by "haunting the studio gates," sneaking past the guards and being chased around the lot, disrupting scenes currently in production and driving one of the directors (Alfred E. Green) out of his mind. With much more to follow, it gets better than this. Stay tuned and see what further develops for this Hollywood Cinderella.

Amusing at times as it is familiar, ELLA CINDERS, if remembered at all, has all the ingredients for surefire material in the Betty Hutton or Lucille Ball tradition. Funniest scene comes early in the story where Ella studies the method of acting from "The Art of Motion Picture Book," going through the motions with her eyes. An excellent use of special effects done in split screen, her eyes move individually in all directions. This scene alone was certainly one that had audiences laughing out of their seats back in 1926. This is followed by another set in the California bound train where Ella falls asleep, with all passengers getting off and to be awaken later surrounded by Indians, actually actors dressed as Indians who had come on at an earlier stop, being lead to believe the train was attacked. She becomes ill after smoking a cigar offered to her by an "Indian chief." Another highlight is the unbilled guest appearance of comedian Harry Langdon whom Ella mistakes as a wanna-be actor avoiding capture from the studio guards. "There's after me, too," she tells Langdon as he holds on to the door during a movie rehearsal.

Of a handful of Colleen Moore features produced during the silent era, ELLA CINDERS is best known due to availability on video cassette from various distributors and sporadic television revivals some decades ago, notably on the weekly public television series "The Toy That Grew Up," from the 1960s, complete with composed organ score, the same one used for the Grapevine Video Company with the running time of 70 minutes. While prints of ELLA CINDERS is in need of restoration, average or not so good prints in circulation don't deprive silent movie lovers from enjoying the misadventures of Miss Ella Cinders. (***)

A better than average comedy of the period that includes a backstage look at Hollywood. It includes a scene with Harry Langdon playing his typical screen character.

Best scenes are Ella on the lam backstage at a Hollywood studio; at the photo studio; Ella's first cigar and the eye exercises. Some of the womens costumes and the titles are also very good.

I watched this silent comedy with Colleen Moore and gorgeous Lloyd Hughes with my 6 year old daughter and we were rapt with attention all the way through. This film boasts a touching sweet romance, and many fine and unique comedy moments, such as Ella getting her picture taken for a beauty contest and having a fly land on her nose, and Lloyd's character using the missing shoe for measurements to buy her a pair of dress shoes when she goes off to Hollywood.

Unlike one commentator here however I didn't care for that organ score. I heard some copyrighted song musical phrases in there that were misplaced too, like a strain from Dr. Zhivago! Weird.

If you love Colleen Moore or want to learn more about her this is a film not to be missed. She was an excellent comedienne, even better than Mabel Normand.

I first heard of this film as a fan of the great film comedian Harry Langdon because of a guest appearance he makes in one scene of this film. Watching the whole thing, though, I was very glad I got ahold of this comedy vehicle for the silent star Colleen Moore; it's a highly funny, pleasant, and entertaining picture all the way through.

"Ella Cinders" is based on a comic strip (or, as the main title has it, "comedy strip") of the same name that started appearing only the year before the film version was made. Having seen only one edition of the strip I can't say how closely the movie parallels it, but I can say that while looking very pretty in the picture, Colleen Moore also manages to look very much like the drawings of her character.

Faithful or not, the screen treatment is a very good one -- a clever, witty, and involving update of, obviously, "Cinderella" and an effective satire of the arbitrary nature of Hollywood stardom. There are just enough diversions from the line of the story to stay funny, but keep the plot going. And the "Cinderella" elements can be very amusing when played right for laughs, especially Mrs Cinders' complete inability to remember she has another daughter.

Colleen Moore was the real revelation of the picture for me, though. If there were nothing else to it she could have carried it on charisma and screen presence alone. She's totally likable, earnest, innocent, and bewildered, and there are several great scenes that are only that way because her performance makes them so. The scene on the train that would otherwise be simply "a woman smokes a cigar given to her by an Indian" becomes a a bravura performance of her nausea barely masked by a frightened attempt to please the threatening Indians. And a highlight is Ella's earnest but inescapably silly attempts to follow a book's (surprisingly accurate!) advice that great stars are often made by crossing their eyes. Add to the list a hilarious routine with an impatient photographer, a fly, and an Ella desperate to have a flattering shot taken for her beauty contest.

It's a little ironic, actually, that a film that mocks Hollywood stardom in such an on-target way (Ella wins the contest because the fly on her nose made her look just right for the comediennes Hollywood needs!) should be so effectively "made" by its lead actress' star quality.

When Harry Langdon does show up (as Ella wanders into the shooting of one of his films -- he was at the height of his popular at this point and releasing his films through the same studio as released this) and seems exactly the same offscreen as on, he and Moore seem to have great screen chemistry, like kindred innocents trying to help each other escape... something.

Perhaps it's not substantial enough to be one of the greatest of silent comedies, but I think it would be very difficult if not impossible not to have a great time watching this. And it makes it very clear why Colleen Moore was such a sensation.

Ella Cinders is like a modern day (well, for the 1920s) Cinderella story. A poor girl (Colleen Moore) living in a house with her stepmother and stepsisters like a servant has only things going right for her. She has the love of a sweet man in town (Lloyd Hughes) and a film contest that she wins. A group of men hold a beauty contest in town and the prize is a trip to Hollywood to become an actress. The stepsisters and half of the town think they will win the prize, but a funny picture puts Ella in the spotlight, sending her on a train to Hollywood. Once there, she finds that the place isn't what she dreamed it would be, but she cannot go home so she does her best to succeed.

Harry Langdon makes a very funny but short appearance in the movie. Even without his appearance, this movie would be a jewel. It is quickly paced, very funny, and stars one of the major stars of the silent era. Unfortunately, this film, along with most of Colleen Moore's other movies, is not commercially available. Bad bootleg prints are all that we will see until someone wises up to the quality of this movie and releases it on a quality DVD.