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The title SOULS FOR SALE (Goldwyn Studios, 1923), directed by Rupert Hughes, might give some indication to anyone not familiar with this particular silent movie to be a horror tale about Satan worshipers at an auction block. It is, in fact, a Hollywood story. Not quite what is expected from the legendary "A Star is Born," yet something more to a "What Price Hollywood" theme centering upon actors who, figuratively speaking, selling their souls for the price of fame, and showing the frightening risk they make for the sake of their art. An interesting screenplay starring Eleanor Boardman (best known today for her performance in director King Vidor's contemporary drama, "The Crowd" (1928)), in her first leading role, director Hughes places the top-named celebrities of the day to cameo appearances, providing viewers an inside look of actual movies currently in production.

The story revolves around a small town girl named Remember (Eleanor Boardman), (a name not to forget), whose leaves her minister father (Forrest Robinson) and mother (Edith Yorke) to marry Owen Studder (Lew Cody), who, unknown to her, is a confidence man who marries, has his wife insured and murders them. While on a honeymoon train heading for Los Angeles to go on a boat to China, Remember suddenly finds herself fearing this man, and after the train makes a water stop, she climbs down from the observation platform, only to have the train take off, leaving her alone in the middle of nowhere. Fainting due to excessive desert heat, "Mem" awakens to find herself comforted by a sheik (no, it's not Rudolph Valentino), who happens to be Tom Holby (Frank Mayo), an actor from a motion picture company on location. After she regains her strength to go on, director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix) offers her extra work in the movies. After the company departs, "Mem," in need of work, comes to Hollywood where she makes her rounds to the casting offices at various studios, and in doing so, she gets to witness famous celebrities and directors at work. Meeting up with Claymore again, he offers her screen tests and bit parts until Robina Teele (Mae Busch), the leading lady in his upcoming circus movie, meets with an accident, having Claymore cast Mem in the lead instead. Claymore has fallen in love with Mem and wants to marry her, but can't because of her marriage to a man whose reputation might cause a scandal. More problems arise when Studder, now broke, who had seen Mem in a movie, decides to cash in on her success by wanting to come back into her life, much against her better judgment.

The supporting players consists of William Haines as Pinkey, the assistant director; Barbara LaMarr as Love LaMaire, "the screen's best hated vamp"; Dale Fuller, Aileen Pringle, Snitz Edwards, as well as 35 guest stars ranging from notable, forgotten and legendary performers of the day. Film enthusiasts will endure watching Erich Von Stroheim directing Jean Hersholt in "Greed"; Charlie Chaplin directing "A Woman of Paris"; along with the lesser known Fred Niblo directing "The Famous Mrs. Fair." Key scenes include the filming of a circus story realistically destroyed by a blaze of fire.

SOULS FOR SALE was one of many silent movies of the period to have become missing links over the years, with no known prints to survive. As luck would have it, a copy was discovered sometime in the 1970s in Czechoslovakia Eileen Bowser, film historian from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. While SOULS FOR SALE premiered on Turner Classic Movies on January 24, 2006, newly scored by Marcus Sjowall, its television broadcast history actually didn't begin there, but 27 years prior on a public television station in New York City, WNET, Channel 13, July 15, 1978, on a scarcely noticed series dedicated to the discovery of lost and found movies appropriately titled "Lost and Found" hosted by Richard Schickel, with Bowser as consultant, airing on eight consecutive Saturday evenings from June to August 1978. Following its 80 minute and music-scored presentation, an after film discussion took place with Schickel giving a profile on other movies with Hollywood related themes, including "Hollywood" (1923), "Merton of the Movies" (1924), both lost films; "The Extra Girl" (1923), "Show People" among many others, along with the discovery of SOULS FOR SALE. Aside from limited rebroadcasts and theatrical screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, SOULS FOR SALE remains a forgotten item from cinema history. Yet, some questions remain, "What becomes of movies, particularly silent ones, after it ends its run on television?" Some have been distributed to video cassette the way it was formerly shown, others with using different underscoring, some with no scores at all. "If these movies have already been scored, why go through the trouble of re-scoring them?" It's obvious that the staff of TCM had no indication that SOULS FOR SALE ever played on television before, since "Lost and Found" was not nationally syndicated nor did it ever go through the rerun process afterwards. As mentioned by TCM host Robert Osborne, TCM acquired a print but minus music score. "Couldn't a print be leased from the already scored copy from MOMA?" Quite possible, however, the 1978 TV presentation happened to be ten minutes shorter than the TCM showing, indicating missing footage now restored. One thing to be thankful for, that TCM appears to be the only cable channel to go through the bother of dedicating and bringing obscure silents such as this back from the dead, plus a chance to give young composers, such as Sjowall, a chance to display his God-given talent. His newly composed score fits every mood of the story to perfection.

A find blend of humor, drama and suspense, SOULS FOR SALE, for what it is, succeeds to be a watchable little item. One can only hope for further rebroadcasts (DVD distribution 2009 from TCM Archive) for SOULS FOR SALE to become better known today. (***)

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

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!

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.

For a modern audience, Souls for Sale (1923) is nothing we have not seen before. It's the small-town girl becomes big star overnight story, with healthy helpings of romantic melodrama thrown in. It's a story that can be done well, but here it's done with little to distinguish it from other movies of its kind.

Eleanor Boardman, a truly underrated talent, does well in the lead, with all the other actors giving solid performances. Silent film mavens will enjoy the topical humor and cameos of famous directors and stars of the early 1920s. (My favorite inter-title takes a jab at The Sheik (1921), a masterpiece of old time kitsch.) In the end, silent film geeks will get more out of this than casual viewers will.