The Circle

The Circle (1925)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Frank Borzage's mix of comedy and drama has Elizabeth Cheney (Eleanor Boardman) wanting to leave her husband for her better lover but the woman knows that her husband's mother did the same thing to his father thirty years earlier. At a weekend party, the husband's mother, who he hasn't seen since she left, comes for a visit and is bringing the lover along as Elizabeth wants to see what would happen if she ran away. THE CIRCLE is something that I'm really not sure how to describe. I wouldn't call it a good movie but I think it has some fairly interesting aspects but it also had some downright weird moments. I'm really not sure what Borzage was trying for here unless he was just wanting to show that everything comes full circle. The first portion of the film is clearly a drama and things are going this direction throughout the majority of the movie but then it turns to a comedy when we're in current days. The mother's lover is a complete loud mouth who is constantly complaining about everything. This comedy attempt is the way the film says that it's best to stay who you're with but making an example out of this guy really served no purpose. Even stranger from the film is that his character is constantly cussing but in the intertitles they have certain letters marked out. Hell becomes "H--l" and damn becomes "D--m" and so on. The performances in the film are all over the place but Boardman is extremely good in the lead role and she does receive nice support from Malcolm McGregor and Alec Francis. George Fawcett appears as the obnoxious lover and we even seen a very young Joan Crawford playing the mother during the opening sequences. THE CIRCLE isn't going to appeal to everyone and it's mostly silent film buffs who will take the most from it.

The Circle by Somerset Maugham is one of those dated stories of adultery among the upper classes of England where no one behaves much like a recognizable human being (see Maugham's charming and more satisfying The Constant Wife). This stage to screen adaptation succeeds more than expected, largely because of intelligent direction by Frank Borzage and a great performance by supporting player Eugenie Besserer. Lead actress Eleanor Boardman is a beauty but at a disadvantage in a story that cannot take advantage of her naturalistic style. The real reason to see this movie is the terrific performance of Eugene Besserer as Lady Catherine, who ran away from her marriage 30 years before and is only now being reunited with her adult son (her younger self is played, fleetingly, by Joan Crawford). Brought back to the estate to see if "forbidden love" can endure, she sails back in as an aging flapper in a bountiful blonde wig. A confrontation with a photo of her younger self gives her the oppotunity for a bit of pathos, which she exploits beautifully. Besserer would earn a place in history a few years later as Al Jolson's mother in the groundbreaking sound film, The Jazz Singer, in which Jolson improvised the first dialogue heard in film in a scene with her. The Circle manages some nifty physical comedy, such as the scene where the concerned family is steathily trying to separate their father from his shotgun. Many a scene like this depends on the style of the play -- stiff upper lip and so forth -- so modern audiences may be a bit puzzled. And even more puzzled by Boardman's character loving her man because he threatens to punch her in the eye.

The Circle deserves more than the 6.7 star average it currently has on IMDB. Somerset Maughm has an astute handle on dysfunctional relationships and the cyclical nature of family patterns.

Although the ending is stilted and artificial to the modern audience, the quality of the lighting, camera work, and preservation itself makes this worth a watch. One could easily believe this was a recently made film intentionally made to look like a 1920's silent so it gives us a good chance to see what the real theater goer of that era could have enjoyed.

There's the gorgeous lady and her lover;there's the husband.One night ,she leaves him in a romantic manner...

But what follows happens thirty years after.And Frank Borzage tramples the golden principles underfoot .Gone is the old cliché,as old as the hills,of the romantic lovers.The beauty has become a sour-tempered pudgy old lady while the dashing attentive escort has grown into a grumpy sullen less-than-attractive greybeard.And finally it's the cheated husband who walks out with the honors:he has kept his dignity and he will do everything to spare his son the same fate as his.The characters,mainly in the card games sequence,are vividly depicted.

THE CIRLCE is a charming little film, full of humor and ironies.

Based on a play by Somerset Maugham, THE CIRCLE is a handsome film directed by Frank Borzage. The film opens in the 1890s as Lady Catherine is about to leave her husband (and son) and run off with her lover. The scene dissolves to 30 years later where young Elizabeth (pretty Eleanor Boardman) is facing the same decision: dull husband (Creighton Hale) or dashing lover (Malcolm McGregor). To make matters worse, Lady Catherine has been invited (along with husband) to visit! As Boardman and company get ready for their guests we get several shots of Lady Catherine and husband motoring toward the country estate. The shots are from the back. So it's a slight shock when Lady Catherine breezes into the house and goes up to McGregor, thinking he's her son. Lady Catherine (superbly played by Eugenie Besserer) is seen to be a rather silly middle-aged dowager wearing too much makeup.

As the story progresses, Boardman starts to learn a lesson in romantic folly from the fading older woman who constantly gazes at an old photograph of herself (it's actually a photo of 20-year-old Joan Crawford who also plays the young Lady Catherine… one of about a half dozen films she appeared in in 1925).

Co-stars include Alec B. Francis, George Fawcett, and Eulalie Jensen.