The Red Lily

In the silent year of 1925, Herr Fred Niblo directed Herr Novarro in "Ben-Hur", a colossal silent film production that made its way into film history for its magnificence and grandiloquence, but just one year before, both director and actor worked together in a modest, small silent film production as magnificent in its way as "Ben-Hur"; you only have to change ancient Rome for Paris and you have "The Red Lily".

"The Red Lily" is a superb silent film that must be recovered from oblivion for the joy of silent fan crowds around the world ( nowadays a more easy task since the longhaired people at "Warner" decided to open up their archive vaults ). The film is a small piece that highlights the virtues of silent cinema in which the complications of human nature play the lead in the film. It's a beautiful and sorrowful love story that defies destiny and moves the audience in an irresistible way.

The love story between the Major's son Jean ( Herr Ramon Novarro ) and the cobbler's daughter Marise ( Dame Enid Bennett ) will have to overcome difficult and terrible circumstances. As a German saying says "when you think that things are bad, they get worse" and that it is what happens during the whole film until a happy ending will finally bring the couple together. Set in French Brittany, social prejudices and an unjust robbery accusation will send Jean and Marise to Paris, a big city where the love of our sweethearts will suffer a terrible turning point in their lives.

Herr Niblo's superb film direction shows the fragility, uncertainty and changeability of the inner human sentiments of our heroes; they will suffer despair and hate, helplessness together in squalid conditions and, worst of all, broken dreams. Jean and Marise suffer their special "Way of the Cross" depicted on the screen by Herr Niblo with a deep, painful sorrow. It's a private tragedy full of deception that rules the lives of our heroes in which it seems that destiny is continuously sneering at them.

Astounding and remarkable is the performance of Dame Bennett in her role of Marise, one of those classical heroines of silent films; her transformation from a mild peasant to a prostitute is brilliant, an excellent example of the greatness of silent pictures and superior actresses, in which a look, a timid gesture, a cry for help, can still move longhaired audiences to trembling even today.

The film is perfectly set in different surroundings; from the Brittany provincialism and their peculiar peasants and prejudices to the Paris slums full of decadent and distinctive characters. Besides exceptional art direction you also have the great cinematography of Herr Victor Milner; it's luminous and hopeful in Brittany and gloomy in the breathless and eternal Paris night, until the finale when the sun will shine again in the broken lives of Jean and Marise.

"The Red Lily" is a beautiful film pregnant with infinite sadness about the fragility of love and life, redemption and forgiveness; a touching film story, a hidden and wonderful silent piece.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must give a bouquet of stinging nettles to a Teutonic rich heiress.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Two young people Jean (Ramon Novarro) and Marise (Enid Bennett) are in love but too young to marry. They go to Paris hoping to get married there. While in Paris they both get separated. Jean becomes a hardened criminal hunted by the police. Marise becomes drug addicted and a prostitute (implied). Will they ever see each other and what will become of them?

This seems to have been a lost film until TCM showed it a few days ago. It's beautifully restored with a tinted print and a brand new (and quite impressive) music score. The acting and direction are excellent. Novarro is just stunning--a very beautiful man and quite an actor. It's easy to see why he was so popular in his day. Bennett is likewise beautiful and ALMOST as good as Novarro (she was a little too goody-goody for me at the beginning). When the two of their lives fall apart it's incredible. They don't just act different, they LOOK different (Bennett especially). It's really heartbreaking to see what happens to these two innocent kids. I missed the very end (it ran longer than TCM had listed) but my guess is that it wasn't happy! UPDATE: I saw the whole thing and it does give us a happy (it totally unbelievable) ending.

A very impressive silent film. Well worth catching.

This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. I have never been a silent film fan,until now. This was the first silent film I actually watched until the end. The story could have easily turned into melodrama and soap opera. But it was expertly written, with just the right romantic and dramatic nuances. It is a classic story, encompassing the many trials and tribulations of love. Both Enid Bennet and Ramon Novarro were amazing as the two romantic lead characters. The range of emotions that shown on both their faces was remarkable. The newly composed musical score was both classic and contemporary,adding to the beautiful tapestry of this film classic.

"The Red Lily" is unusual in that I had never even heard of it until 18 September 2016 when Turner Classic Movies brought it -- as it turns out, again, after 10 years -- to the screen as the Sunday night silent.

This is not bragging but I have been a silent movie fan since about 1972, when I first moved to Los Angeles and discovered the Silent Movie Theatre, then run by John Hampton and his wife.

Attending every week for several years, until Mr. Hampton became ill and the theater closed, I considered myself somewhat of a silent movie authority, a minor expert.

So I was surprised by "The Red Lily" and by Enid Bennett, whom I do not remember seeing before.

In her first scene I thought "Lillian Gish," though perhaps it was her make-up, especially the lips, and the hat.

But in fact Enid Bennett gave a performance worthy of La Gish, a magnificent performance, heart-tugging again and again.

Her innocence and her constant victimization brought me to sympathy and to anger in scene after scene.

Ramon Novarro proved once again that he was an excellent actor, and watching him battle himself was a lesson and a movie-going treat.

Other actors, including the inimitable Wallace Beery, were equally enthralling, perhaps especially Milla Davenport as "Madame Poussot."

One reviewer here questioned if it were really a man, because she had a mustache and very noticeable beard. I believe I have seen Ms. Davenport in other mustachioed roles, usually for comic purposes, but possibly it was another actress or other actresses.

Most likely, in my opinion, her hirsute adornment was added by the makeup department, but there are women afflicted with facial adornment, I think especially Mediterranean-descended women.

The Madame Poussot character added another layer, another dimension to the rather ugly and unpleasant Paris atmosphere that was necessary to this story.

Ugly? One can't get much uglier than the Paris sewer system, which has figured in many a movie. In fact, I wonder in just how many movies it has appeared, in addition to the many versions of "Les Miserables."

Ugly, depressing, downbeat -- "The Red Lily" can break your heart, as it did mine, right up to the apparently tacked-on ending.

That apparently tacked-on ending knocked down my rating to only 9, but the rest of "The Red Lily" is so moving, so beautifully produced, it is a must-see for film lovers and especially for silent film lovers.

I highly recommend "The Red Lily" and I'm grateful to TCM for presenting it.

The plot strains credulity and Novarro's character changes his mind without conviction (other than this is what the script dictates)at least once. And it's melodramatic, depending on the kind of mischance that drives a Thomas Hardy novel. Enid Bennett is no Lillian Gish -- Bennett does not demonstrate that subtle shift in emotion and attitude that makes Gish so great -- although the changes in Bennett's makeup are remarkable. She does, finally, revert to "Angel Face." That said, this is a classic silent film. It uses a minimum of title cards. Its shots are beautifully designed. It has a neat repeat of the beginning in the ending -- with the exception that Wallace Beery's Bo Bo is involved in the latter. He's the only one who seems to grasp what a close call the lovers have just had. The final scene becomes a visual summary of the film. One moment -- when Bennett lights a candle on the fireplace of her former home and the tint immediately becomes orange --is breathtaking. The Paris depicted is that of Victor Hugo -- no grand vistas or broad boulevards, but cul de sacs, hovels, brothels, the sewers, and the constant pursuit of avenging gendarmes. The film demonstrates why these films packed movie houses and why they are still so much more worth watching than 90 % of "talkies."