The Red Mill

The saddest thing about The Red Mill is that it never got a sound adaption so the Victor Herbert-Henry Blossom score was never heard. Watching it I was hoping at least to hear some of the songs on the sound track. But there was nary a note of Herbert's heard in the film.

The Red Mill was a vehicle for the famous vaudeville team of Fred Stone and David Montgomery and ran in the 1906-07 season for 274 performances. The score consisted of such Herbert classics as In Old New York and Every Day Is Lady's Day With Me and Moonbeams. Purportedly there was a planned remake of it that was shelved that would have starred Laurel and Hardy. It might have been a great film.

This version has the plot somewhat altered to fit Marion Davies who plays a Dutch barmaid who falls in love with visiting Irishman Owen Moore. It's a good thing that Roscoe Arbuckle directing under the pseudonym William Goodrich was in charge. He saw that Davies got some nice comedy bits at which she was so much better at than some of the heavy dramatics that William Randolph Hearst her patron and paramour saw as her strength.

MGM spent a lot of money designing some great sets including a Dutch mill where Davies spends the climax trying to elude the villain with Moore trying to rescue her. It's similar to the rather outlandish and funny climax in the rollicking film Many Rivers To Cross that starred Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker with Davies her own worst enemy in the rescue.

The mill itself is very similar to the one in the Frankenstein movies over at Universal. It's quite remarkable even for today.

I'm disappointed in not hearing any Victor Herbert music, but Marion Davies is quite good in this film.

Very enjoyable silent romantic comedy set in Holland which stars Marion Davies as Tina, pigtailed drudge of the Red Mill Tavern - she cleans the floor by skating around with scrub brushes attached to her feet and has a little pet mouse who lives in her wooden shoe. The man who runs the tavern is a real meanie who goes around with a snarl and a whip and likes to lock local boys in the "Haunted Mill". Handsome Dennis (played by Owen Moore), visiting Holland (attracted by the damsels not the dams) along with his valet, is outside skating where Tina observes him through her window, immediately falls for him, and races right out there to meet him! Well, they are soon skating together while she swoons on his shoulder - but he leaves town before anything can come of this, spring comes, and she dreams of love. Meanwhile, the Burgomaster's daughter Gretchen (Louise Fazenda) is being forced by her father to marry the Governor - and is being locked in her room at the Inn until the wedding day. But Gretchen loves another - so to help her out, Tina gets the idea that they should exchange clothes so Gretchen can sneak out to meet her secret love. Misunderstandings ensue when Dennis, now back at the Inn, meets Marion dressed as Gretchen and falls in love with her.

This is a really excellent film - well done and full of charm. There are a number of amusing, laugh out loud scenes in this - Marion Davies has a face full of expression and is really wonderful here. There is one very funny scene when she first meets Owen Moore's character - she enters a skating race which he is judging (with the prize of a kiss for the winner!) and ends up with a face covered in ice (and no kiss - ah). Another funny bit shows her with no make-up as she covers up her face with a "mud massage" which magically comes off to reveal her now fully made-up, beautiful face. Snitz Edwards, who plays the valet, also adds a lot of humor to this - I think he's funny when he's just standing there! This film was very reminiscent to me of the type of film that Mary Pickford might have starred in - so it's interesting that Owen Moore stars in this, Mary's first husband. The version of this as shown on TCM featured a gorgeous clear print with a lot of contrast and a really terrific music score that I loved - I thought the music really helped enhance this film. A romantic, funny, and delightful film.

Despite watching this film in a less than ideal print, with a canned soundtrack (as of this writing, I hope TCM eventually airs this film with a good soundtrack based on the public domain music of Victor Herbert for this operetta -- I know they have it in their library, what are they waiting for???), I really enjoyed this romantic comedy. Although still essentially a period piece (Hearst loved those and kept putting Marion in them), Marion Davies' screwball comedy skills brighten up the whole picture, which otherwise would have been just a quaint little programmer, soon forgotten.

Marion is ably supported by handsome Owen Moore (Mary Pickford's first husband), and additional comic relief is provided by wonderful Karl Dane (who looks almost handsome here!), and perky Louise Fazenda, who actually was quite pretty when young, so it was brave of her to agree to look ugly for this film. Not to mention our own little favorite funny man, Snitz Edwards, who is always a barrel of laughs in every film he's in, simply by hamming it up for the camera.

The plot doesn't have much to do with the Victor Herbert operetta; that was more of a serious story, and sometimes the pace of this film seemed a bit fragmented, but overall it really is a crowd-pleaser and needs to be more widely available; just one more example of Marion Davies' astounding comedic abilities. She was so much more than just Hearst's paramour! She was the first screwball comedienne! (Also a woman with a big heart, since apparently she was instrumental in getting Roscoe Arbuckle this directorial job and I'm sure his influence added to the comedy).

8 out of 10.

Update: TCM is airing this film in April 2007 for the first time.

This is yet another movie that should be shown to anyone who might doubt the talents of Marion Davies. She is delightful in this performance, with some wonderful bits of physical comedy. Director Fatty Arbuckle surely deserves the credit as well. The supporting players are also quite good, but make no mistake - this is her film.

Here's the thing.

If you love film, you'll love the experiments in cinematic narrative of "Citizen Kane," but at the same time wonder why he chose Hearst and Davis to pick on. You would think that the choice in subject would be every bit as nuanced, especially as the choice is popularly credited with destroying him in Hollywood.

And that might lead you to some of Marion Davis' films, especially this one directed by a similarly blacklisted Fatty Arbuckle. This is such a gem. Actually, its quite ordinary, but she is so special in it, it will glow forever. It seems that she would have been better off without Hearst's interest in her. She had the stuff.

The climax of this has something of a different flavor than the rest of it, which pretty much follows the formula of the day. It has a pacing that was unusual for the time. Hard to notice today when such things seem like the way the world breathes. But Fatty knew his stuff, and so did Marion. And so did Orson but he actually relied on them.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.