Free to Love

Having just watched "The Vamp" Theda Bara in A Fool There Was on YouTube, I thought I'd go to another sex symbol of the silent era on the same site and seek out a film starring "The 'It' Girl", Clara Bow. Unfortunately, the one I watched, Free to Love, was a melodrama about a girl wrongly sent to an institution a couple of years ago who goes to her accuser and confronts him with a gun. That accuser now knows her innocence and asks for her forgiveness, which she does. Then there's some various twists that sort of made my head hurt and there's this twitchy guy named Tony and...Like I said, this was a melodrama that provided Ms. Bow and others to overact like you see in many silent pictures. I watched wanting to care about the characters but I just wanted the whole thing to be over. And on top of that, the print itself was just so blurry and the music picked to score the film was so overwhelming, it was just overkill for me. I also could've sworn some scenes were edited. So on that note, unless you're a silent movie buff with lots of curiosity, I wouldn't recommend Free to Love.

After a two-year stint in the reformatory, Clara Bow (as Marie Anthony) goes to shoot the judge who wrongly sent her there. Incredibly, wealthy Winter Hall (as Winthrop Orr) has just realized his error, and offers to take Ms. Bow in as his ward. After accepting the proposition, Bow begins to romance young preacher Donald Keith (as John Crawford). Alas, the young couple's chances for happiness are complicated by both her past, and his unexpected connection to underworld figures, like sleazy Raymond McKee (as Tony).

"Free to Love" is an odd little melodrama. It does feature the very likable pairing of Bow and Keith, albeit in stranger than the expected roles. Hallam Cooley (as Jack Garner) and Charles Mailes (as Kenton Crawford) are good additions to the aforementioned players. Raymond McKee's portrayal of the stooped squealer "Tony" is a particularly showy and heroic role. Bow exhibits a flair for the dramatic. And, actor Frank O'Connor proves himself a promising director.

****** Free to Love (11/20/25) Frank O'Connor ~ Clara Bow, Raymond McKee, Donald Keith

Free to Love (1925)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Marie Anthony (Clara Bow) gets released from a reformatory so she heads to the judge's house who wrongly sent her away. Once at the house she pulls a gun on him but the judge (Winter Hall) breaks down admitting he was wrong and offers to take her in as his own. She accepts and soon falls in love with Reverend (Donald Keith) but soon her crooked path catches up with her. Okay, this melodrama is just downright bad, bad, bad. I mean really bad from the start to the end but the thing is so bad that I actually found myself somewhat enjoying what was going on. There are some really embarrassing moments here and they start as the beginning when the judge just overlooks the fact that this woman has pulled a gun on him. She hates him with a passion but they break down and become best friends in the matter of seconds. Even sillier is a supporting character who is either a hunchback trying to copy Lon Chaney or the character is suffering from some type of brain damage. Either way this guy does the dumbest tricks and how the film tries to make him some tortured soul is just hilarious when you really pay attention to it. The relationship between Marie and the Reverend is just as silly and not for a second did I believe anything between them. Once again Bow serves as eye candy as her acting leaves a lot to be desired. I thought there were times when she was way over-the-top and others where it just seemed like she didn't know what she was doing. I'm willing to guess she was overworked considering she made so many movies in 1925 alone or perhaps the director just didn't want to tell her to do another take. Whatever the reason I didn't care too much for her here and Keith is just as bland as was the case in the other films he did with Bow. At just 61-minutes there's not much that happens here but when the film does try to be drama it comes off more as a comedy.

Thanks to Alpha, a really good DVD is now available in which nearly all the acting seems both lively and convincing, and where it can now easily be seen that Clara's magnificent performance is by far her best work in her entire career. We no longer have to rely on a murky, fair-to-middling print of this moody melodrama in which director Frank O'Connor pulls out all the stops to give ALL his players a free hand to connect with the audience. Raymond McKee (soon to achieve fame in Mack Sennett shorts as Jimmy Smith), over-acts and chews up the scenery a bit. Hallam Cooley runs him a close second, whilst Charles Hill Mailes and Winter Hall (and even the actor who plays the police captain) are not far behind. As for Donald Keith, he plays a wet character—and acts accordingly. But it all fits together. That Miss Bow manages to hold her own under this combined assault is a tribute not only to her skill, but her charisma. She has only to look into the camera with her soulful, flashing eyes to quickly register whatever emotions the script requires.

Whatever else, the title "Free to Love", has not a great deal to do with the fast-moving, gloriously melodramatic, expensively produced, cops-and-robbers plot which even contrives at least two or three genuine surprises.

This was one of Clara Bow's films that had passed me by , I thought I had seen them all , being a fan and all that The version I watched was a bad print but what do you expect , as my heading states the film is nearly 100 years old , but Clara when you can see her properly still looks amazing

The plot is silly ,, this film apparently took two weeks to make ,and it shows , but I only watched it for Clara , I must ask why in every film the leading men and love interests are always old enough to be her dad

I would recommend watching just to glean every performance of the genuine IT Girls the one and only Clara Bow ,