The Painted Lady

Early film directed by D.W. Griffith; with Blanche Sweet giving a noteworthy performance. She is a young woman forbidden, by her father (Charles Hill Mailes), to wear make-up. When she goes to an ice cream social, she attracts little attention, while the Griffith men go for "The Painted Lady". Dejected, she meets a stranger in town (Joseph Graybill); at last! a man shows interest in the unpainted Ms. Sweet. They begin to meet secretly. Sadly, the man is really interested in her father's money - in disguise, he goes to rob Sweet's home; then, our heroine gets a gun to confront the thief…

Sweet is entertaining in the starring role, relaying all the proper emotions with her face and gestures. There is a continuity distraction - note that the man's hat as he lies down seems to pop back on his head inexplicably. "The Painted Lady"'s message doesn't really make too much sense. Why is Sweet is the only woman who suffers the consequences of frivolous femininity?

***** The Painted Lady (10/24/12) D.W. Griffith ~ Blanche Sweet, Charles Hill Mailes, Joseph Graybill

Miss Blanche Sweet's portrayal of a mad girl in this picture seems to reach a higher plane of art than any of her previous characterizations, and she has done good work in many diverse roles. The film presents a psychological study of character dramatically, and gives a fresh criticism of life. The subtlety of it makes it a hard picture to comment on; one hesitates as before jumping into a very deep pool. But very crudely we may say that it draws for us a not very well balanced girl. She is somewhat morbidly conscientious and, consequently, not popular; but the humanity of her heart, as shown by her longing for friends, her longing to be understood, makes us deeply interested in her. Very logical is her reaching out to her new friend, her first sweetheart, and since he is what he is, a tragedy of some sort is imminent. The suddenness with which it comes shatters her mind. It is a picture that most certainly ought to be liked. No mechanically working mind could possibly have conceived it and we commend it as a work of art. A strong offering. - The Moving Picture World, November 9, 1912

I like the subhead to this film: "An Indictment Of Frivolous Femininity." I don't like the idea expressed in the story that a woman has to put on a lot of makeup to attract a man. In fact, in this case, the actress playing the "plain" and often-rejected girl, is pretty without it. She's Blanche Sweet, who starred in a ton of silent movies including many in her teenage years. Although only in her mid-teens when this was made (perhaps even 14), she looked more mature.

In this story, as we see, shyness and a too-strict father are also making a dating life almost nonexistent for poor, makeup-less "the older sister" (Sweet).

What happens in this story is very strange, and you can read various accounts of it here. I guess the lonely girl wasn't too good at figuring out men. Chalk it up to loneliness and inexperience. What happens in her house, though, is too weird and dates the movie quite a bit. But, that's to be expected. After all, the movie isn't far from being 100 years old.

It's nice that these old D.W. Griffith shorts are still available to the public, even if they look a little odd.

While a young lady contemplated the advantages of make-up a man contemplated how he could get access of an old man's business secrets.

In "The Painted Lady" The Older Sister (Blanche Sweet) eschewed make-up while The Younger Sister (Madge Kirby) had all the boys in the yard by virtue of her liberally using her war paint. But not all of the men flocked to The Younger Sister. At least one man, The Stranger (Joseph Graybill), was attracted to The Older Sister. Too bad his aims were criminal in nature. He was using the Older Sister as a means to get access to her father's business secrets.

Free on YouTube.

I think the main strength here is Blanche Sweet's performance (if you've seen Death's Marathon it's the same actress, and she's fairly distinct at least in the eyes). Anything that's asked of her to do she performs it with a degree of subtlety that wasn't common during the silent period. If she does have to react BIG, it still is done for moments that are big emotional moments (there's a moment by the stairs that she's told something by, uh, her father I think, whoever it is with the beard), and yet I believe her in that moment as well as the others when she's acting with smaller physical gestures and something close to naturalism as possible.

The story is a little too scattered and the message is dated; this is a case where I actually wished for one or two (or three of more) title cards to show certain moments of dialog. The main core of the story is understood as that Sweet is a young woman who doesn't wear make-up (the story description here says her father forbids it, but I got the sense that she just doesn't like it, or doesn't conform). She goes out to some fair and she doesn't get as much attention as the other men.

But she does get into a conversation with one man and it appears he likes her for who she is... that is until it's revealed he's a burglar (what?) and breaks into her home. She doesn't know it's the same guy since he has a mask, she shoots him (sort of by accident), and when she discovers it she's sad. And then the rest of the movie is... her being even sadder. Was she traumatized by killing him? She then has fantasies of meeting someone who isn't there. And then at the end of the story she, uh, puts on make-up. Is it supposed to be a warning to women to put on make-up, to conform? Or is it a story where it's more personal, that this particular person didn't conform to societies standards of beauty and paid a personal price?

There's a hysterical undercurrent (and I mean that not in the funny way but in the old-time way that the word was used with women), and I'm not sure if this holds up very well. I was with the short at first as it was detailing a simple premise, and then it lost me a bit with the burglar component (I also didn't know her father was supposed to be a rich man or whatnot). Things like this make such a silent short dated despite the fact that Griffith's storytelling as director, as much as it's a mightily flawed story, is terrific and he has a great lead. It goes to show that even in 1912 if you haven't got a coherent story, you haven't got anything, all the technical prowess and fine acting besides.