Souls for Sale

Beautiful Eleanor Boardman (as Remember "Mem" Steddon) has just married amorous Lew Cody (as Owen Scudder). But, contemplating her coming honeymoon nights makes Ms. Boardman recoil from Mr. Cody. Suddenly, Boardman jumps off the train carrying the unhappily married couple through the desert of early Los Angeles, California. Almost dead from struggling through the Hollywood sand, Boardman collapses on the location setting for a movie directed by Richard Dix (as Frank Claymore). Boardman reluctantly decides to bloom where she is planted; and, she becomes a movie star. Boardman is romanced by "director" Dix and matinée idol Frank Mayo (as Tom Holby). Meanwhile, estranged husband Cody plans his "comeback"…

The melodramatic "Souls for Sale" moves way too quickly, and is not structured for easy viewing. For example, details about the characters played by Boardman and Cody are revealed too late for full dramatic impact. The story is more interesting during a second viewing. Writer Rupert Holmes (uncle of eccentric Howard Hughes) didn't direct many movies, but he does exceptionally well, helming his own "Souls for Sale". The direction of the "circus" scenes is filled with exciting, memorable moments. And, the calmer scenes aren't bad either, like the scene wherein Cody holds framed photographs of his handsome rivals (Dix and Mayo) up to Boardman's mirror. Big names in 1923 filmdom appear in supporting and cameo roles.

******* Souls for Sale (3/27/23) Rupert Holmes ~ Eleanor Boardman, Lew Cody, Richard Dix, Frank Mayo

"O Hollywood! Hollywood! Thou movie-mammon that leadest our children astray, and teachest them wickedness! O Los Angeles, thy name should be Los Diaboles!"

What a crazy, improbable, entertaining hot mess this was. It all starts with a young woman named Remember "Mem" Steddon (Eleanor Boardman) on a train with a man (Lew Cody) she's just married but has a bad feeling about, and so jumps off when it's briefly stopped. She winds up wandering until she happens across a movie shooting in the desert, which leads to her seeking work as an actor. He continues on seeking out his next victim, you see, because he's a serial killer, who marries and then kills his wives for their insurance. The film follows the two stories lines as they diverge; despite a rough start she eventually becomes a star, while he ends up in Egypt, where he runs into a surprise of his own. Somehow we know their paths are going to cross again, and while what happens isn't the most satisfying of plot resolutions, the ending sequence is a wild spectacle.

This was Boardman's first big role, and she's wonderful. Look for her character's wonderfully awful screen tests as she tries to break in the business. Even better is the host of Hollywood actors and directors we see on various film sets, in what are meaty cameos, e.g. Charlie Chaplin making 'A Woman of Paris,' Erich von Stroheim making 'Greed,' and Fred Niblo making 'The Famous Mrs. Fair,' There are many other shots behind the scenes, things like a stuntman dressed as a woman to double for Boardman, elaborate sets, and a giant propeller used to create wind.

We also see a casting director besieged by young women all looking to be a star, with one willing to "pay the price" as she puts it as she comes on to him, a clear reference for sex being the price a woman had to pay to get into the business, even by 1923. The film portrays the casting director as being virtuous and turning her away with the line "Say, are you trying to vamp me?" when of course the reality was probably almost always the opposite. In general the film is a little too rah-rah on Hollywood, putting it in the most positive light of people who worked extremely hard and put their heart and soul into their work, not knowing if censors or the public would approve of the end product, when a more honest portrayal would have been better. On the other hand, as the industry was often under attack for its morals and the lifestyles of its stars in this timeframe, and this was when a scandal really meant box office death, so I can forgive it for that.

The plot is wacky but I liked it for its creativity and was willing to suspend disbelief to go along for the ride. It has great pace, there are nice visuals, and production value is pretty high for the period; even its overly verbose intertitles seem to add to its appeal. This is a silent film that grabs you from the start, and is easy to enjoy.

A truly enjoyable romp down Hollywood's memory lane comes to us courtesy, really, of Turner Classic Movies' "Young Film Composers Competition." The latest winner, Marcus Sjowall, was given the opportunity to provide a score to a silent film that had lost its own, and a very fine job Mr Sjowall did, too.

In 1923, Rupert Hughes directed this production of his eponymous novel. The scandals of the very early 1920s had evidently been on his mind, and Hughes wanted to counteract all that bad publicity. He acknowledges the scandals, then sets out to surmount them with title-card after title-card describing the long hours and hard work of Hollywood's employees, going so far at one point as to describe the work as "factory-hard," which must have been startling to young girls slaving away in sweatshops for pennies a day.

The story that conveys this message of virtuousness in Babylon concerns one Remember "Mem" Stodden, the daughter of a reverend who denounces Hollywood from his pulpit. Mem has married Owen Scudder in haste, but does not plan to repent at leisure--she hops from their train on the honeymoon trip. Stumbling through the desert, Mem collapses on the location set of a sheikh film (just as Eddie Cantor would do 14 years later, in "Ali Baba Goes to Town"), where she attracts the attention of the leading man. She shuns the film folk, though, and goes to work at a small hotel, but is laid off at the end of the season.

She decides to try her hand at the movies after all, and this begins perhaps the oddest part of the film. Successive scenes show movie people at work--directors, actors, cameramen, extras--and clearly this is Hughes at work, rehabilitating his coworkers. This is neither about the Glamour Factory nor an industry expose; it's more of a big infomercial for the movie business. It's fascinating to note which real-life stars are still recognizable today, and which prompt a confused, "Who??" Which isn't to say that Hughes doesn't get his digs in here and there. The vamp, the sheikh, the publicity shots that create a myth, the national screen sweetheart who's maybe just a little bit catty in real life--Hughes captures it all. My favorite set piece of this kind is Mem's screen test: she watches in the screening room in horror as she mugs and prances about on-screen, just as many silent actors of her era did: "Has anyone ever been so terrible on film"? Another nice one is Reverend Steddon's stunned reaction when he runs up to Mem on a circus picture set only to find a stunt man dressed in aerialist drag.

These scenes of Hollywood life are intercut with the travels of Owen Scudder, who is, it turns out, a wanted man, a Bluebeard who marries then kills. We see him court another victim, and later get very satisfactorily hoist with his own petard. Eventually, he reads about his wife's success, and comes to Hollywood to cash in.

This creates a kind of love rectangle, made up of Mem, her director, her leading man, and her no-good husband, all of which is satisfactorily settled in the dramatic closing scenes.

The film has had a lot of work done--many of its title cards seem to have gone missing, and the ones that are substituted often have modern-sounding phrasing, which led me to wonder if we were getting the same story as was originally told. The score is superb: evocative and subtle. The print is choppy; at one point a brief scene is inserted of one of Scudder's victims without context or explanation, and that can get a little disconcerting.

But it's an interesting film, funny and touching in many places, and a wonderful evocation of time and place.

So reads a title card in this not brilliant but enormously entertaining comedy-drama from 1923. Rupert Hughes did the screenplay and the direction from his own novel and he has a great main cast, including Eleanor Boardman, Richard Dix, Mae Busch, William Haines, Lew Cody.... well, the list goes on and on, because there are dozens of cameos here, including shots of Chaplin directing A WOMAN OF Paris and von Stroheim directing GREED, in this kindhearted look at Hollywood. It is a feast for lovers of old movies who love to play spot the stars, and everyone seems to be having a fine old time.

True, the print is a bit battered, but in compensation TCM has just had a new score commissioned for it, part of their Young Composers series. I must say it is the best score they have had done since they started this, and it does what a score should do: underline and intensify the mood of the movie and, in the sentiments of Charlie Chaplin, give the audience something nice to listen to if the movie is a stinker.

It's not a must see movie if you're looking for great film making, but if you're looking for a great popcorn movie, this is one from 1923. It's well worth the time of any film buff.

I don't normally enjoy silent movies and watch only about halfway through BUT "Souls for Sale" 1923 was a delight! It was fun for me to actually see some of the famous names I'd only read about.You get the feeling that you are visiting Hollywood of yesteryear. As a matter of fact my niece commented "it looks like a commercial for Hollywood".If you are like me, you are fascinated by OLD Hollywood; I love the gossip, the scandals, the old cemeteries, etc. What's amusing is that they are "poking fun" at their own foibles and it was still such an innocent place!Keep your eyes on the "dastardly womanizer" who repeatedly turns women's hearts and heads because he is a HOOT!Modern women of 2006 would never fall for his silliness but I assume a lot of his "dramatics" are on purpose and over the top so we can hate him but still find pity for his character. I saw it on TMC the Turner classic movie channel. It wasn't in perfect shape but very good for it's age and the restoration is wonderful. The musical score was so fitting even to a scene where the orchestra was playing on a movie set and the score was playing the same instruments as the actors/musicians on the screen. It's an admirable job that is being undertaken to restore these real "time capsules" of Hollywood history. So pop yourself some corn, sit back, and watch with delight!