Les incomprises

Marion Davies stars as a young woman raised in a family with a young man (Ralph Kellard) to whom she is attracted. Although they are not related, being raised as brother and sister make them uncomfortable with their mutual attractions. Along comes an art student (Carlyle Blackwell) who falls for Davies. Seeing this, Kellard takes off for Paris, leaving the field open for the young lovers.

But Kellard cannot deny his true love for Davies and returns home to win her back only to discover she has married Blackwell. Which lover will Davies choose? Davies is splendid as the young woman torn between love and guilt. Kellard and Blackwell do well as the young men who lover he. Charles Lane plays the step father. Vivienne Osborne plays Marie Cliff and Corinne Barker plays Helen the artist.

High point of the film may be the 12-minute Ball of the Gods sequence, a huge masquerade party the art students throw. Somewhere among the many film extras are Norma Shearer, her mother Edith, and sister Athole. The film was co-directed by Leon D'Usseau and Robert Z. Leonard with a screenplay by Frances Marion.

This is the most depressing Marion Davies movie I have ever seen. Miss Davies was a natural light comedian, but her lover/producer, William Randolph Hearst, wanted her in Important Works, which meant large production values and serious plots. In this one, she and Ralph Cleland are in love, but they don't realize it, because they've been raised as sister and brother; so while he's off in Paris, she marries Carlyle Blackwell, becoming Mrs. Oswald Grismer. With a name like that, you know everyone is going to suffer.

Director Robert Z. Leonard doesn't do his actors any favors. He has everyone indicate their unhappiness by moving like they are arthritics stuck in molasses and glowering in reaction shots. My guess is that everyone knew this was not turning out well, because we are told characters' emotional states in baroquely overwritten titles.

There are some good bits. The "Ball of the Gods" in which the miserable would-be lovers are reunited is a splendid production number, but it comes too late to save the movie. Corinne Barker and Vivienne Osborne as an artist and her occasionally nude model are fairly lively.

I came to this film with high expectations, and that may have caused me to be harsher in this review than I would have been with an ordinary programmer with lesser talents. However, this one is clearly a misfire. A lot of movies can be saved in the editing room. It's clear that they tried. They also failed.