The Golden Chance

I enjoyed FORBIDDEN FRUIT, DeMille's Jazz Age remake of THE GOLDEN CHANCE, but I still have to admit CHANCE is the better of the two. Cleo Ridgely is a phenomenal actress with strikingly modern looks and she nails her Cinderella role perfectly. Wallace Reid is also memorable as the love interest, adding a touch of cynicism to his Prince Charming. The blend of grimy urban reality and fairytale Edwardian splendor elevates the drama, making THE GOLDEN CHANCE one of DeMille's best silent films.

Having worked as an actress with D.W. Griffith, Jeanie Macpherson joined forces with Cecil B. DeMille to write screenplays for his films. She learned her writing skills from Griffith who also started out as an actor and began to write his own material. It seems that via Macpherson, DeMille was tutored by Griffith to write this film.

Golden Chance, The (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Early DeMille melodrama centers on an abused wife (Cleo Ridgely) who takes a job working for a rich couple so that she can make money for her drunk husband (Horace B. Carpenter). The rich couple eventually ask her to join a party where she meets a nice millionaire (Wallace Reid) and the two quickly fall in love, although he doesn't know she's married. This is yet another silent film from DeMille, which has pretty much been forgotten but once again that's a shame because this has quite a few good things to offer. I think the film's biggest weakness is its slow pacing, which hampers the film some, especially in the middle. The movie runs a short 73-minutes so the pacing isn't a huge problem but it doesn't help either. What really stands out were the performances with Ridgely doing a great job as the abused wife who gets her Cinderella chance but doesn't know if she should take it or not. She handles the role with a lot of flare and really makes her character quite memorable. Carpenter is also very good as the snake husband as is Raymond Hatton, a DeMille regular, who plays the sidekick. The real standout here, and the one I was most interested in seeing, was Reid. For those who don't know, Reid was involved in a train wreck in 1919 and being a big money maker, the studio forced a doctor to get him high on morphine so that he could continue to work. Reid eventually lost his mind and ended up dying in a mental hospital a couple years later. This was my first chance seeing him in a leading role, although he did have a brief scene in The Birth of a Nation. I was very impressed with both his acting and physical presence here as he manages to fit the romantic lead very well but he also delivers something a bit deeper. He does a lot of acting with his face, which really makes him stand out and deliver. The film ends in a rather bizarre way but I respect what DeMille did at the very end, although I won't ruin it here. There's also a big fight sequence at the end, which looks very realistic and manges to be quite exciting. While the film isn't a complete success it's still worthy of a viewing.

In watching this early DeMille work, it was once again reinforced to me that early DeMille is far superior to late DeMille. His attention to use of light within scenes is remarkable. His pacing is very good, enabling much to be told in the space of an hour or so. It is a pity that he wasn't as intuitive about the style of his later sound films as he seemed to be in his silent films.

This was the first film in which I had seen Cleo Ridgely. She was remarkable, quite restrained and yet conveyed a broad spectrum of emotions.

The ending is wonderful.

If you're interested in the history of film, this movie is definitely worth watching. As other reviewers pointed out, it is a melodrama, but it has a number of interesting surprises that you won't see in other flicks from the period. DeMille pays good attention to small emotional reactions, and the camera is placed pretty close to the actors, a nice change from the stagey feel of some movies even into the late teens. There are two scenes showing physical fights that are marvelously staged--gritty even by today's standards. And the ending would be rare in today's Hollywood.

I was always curious about Wallace Reid, because I read a little about his tragic personal life in a movie book years ago--here he appears in all his youthful strength and good looks. Cleo Ridgely projects a lot of emotion, and only occasionally goes a little overboard. It's easy to sympathize with the plight of her character. The two bad guys are straight out of Jacob Riis photos. I can see why they didn't work for some viewers who have posted their comments, but I found them fascinating, especially the way their dark emotions were enhanced by the movie's lighting. My favorite player was Edythe Chapman, as a wealthy woman hoping to advance her husband's business.

If you can get into the spirit of 1915 in order to enjoy this film on its own level, you will find it worth your while.