The Red Mill

Excellent film. Almost a fairy tale in its story of the downtrodden Tina (Marion Davies) and the her cruel boss (George Siegmann) who tries to keep her from her love (Owen Moore).

Davies is, as always a comic delight as the drudge who works from dawn til dusk. She has a pet mouse that lives in the hole of her wooden shoe. She dares to enter a skating race because Moore will kiss the winner. She wins (thanks to a big dog) but falls into a huge hole in the ice. She has several more adventures that include a haunted mill called the Red Mill before the happy ending.

There's a magical moment when Davies is impersonating Fazenda (so she can see her boyfriend) and decides to try the facial mud on the dresser. Poor plain Tina the kitchen drudge packs on the mud, but when she takes off the hardened mask she emerges as the beautiful (and fully made up) Marion Davies! Only in Hollywood!

Great cinematography and set decoration help make this a fascinating late silent film and a terrific showcase for the marvelous Marion Davies. Moore is also good as "the Irisher." Siegmann was among the best villains in silent films. Excellent comedy support from Snitz Edwards (a favorite of Buster Keaton's) as well as Louise Fazenda and Karl Dane.

A big hit for MGM in 1927 and recently dusted off by TCM and given a new score by Michael Picton. A real treat for Davies fans. And by the way, she plays most of the film without makeup (notice her freckles) but she is just STUNNING in the Irish princess fantasy.

And yes Davies talked William Randolph Hearst (who produced) into hiring Roscoe Arbuckle to direct (as William Goodrich). Davies was one of the most generous and big-hearted women in Hollywood and never forgot a friend.

A real treat!

Here's the thing.

If you love film, you'll love the experiments in cinematic narrative of "Citizen Kane," but at the same time wonder why he chose Hearst and Davis to pick on. You would think that the choice in subject would be every bit as nuanced, especially as the choice is popularly credited with destroying him in Hollywood.

And that might lead you to some of Marion Davis' films, especially this one directed by a similarly blacklisted Fatty Arbuckle. This is such a gem. Actually, its quite ordinary, but she is so special in it, it will glow forever. It seems that she would have been better off without Hearst's interest in her. She had the stuff.

The climax of this has something of a different flavor than the rest of it, which pretty much follows the formula of the day. It has a pacing that was unusual for the time. Hard to notice today when such things seem like the way the world breathes. But Fatty knew his stuff, and so did Marion. And so did Orson but he actually relied on them.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Despite watching this film in a less than ideal print, with a canned soundtrack (as of this writing, I hope TCM eventually airs this film with a good soundtrack based on the public domain music of Victor Herbert for this operetta -- I know they have it in their library, what are they waiting for???), I really enjoyed this romantic comedy. Although still essentially a period piece (Hearst loved those and kept putting Marion in them), Marion Davies' screwball comedy skills brighten up the whole picture, which otherwise would have been just a quaint little programmer, soon forgotten.

Marion is ably supported by handsome Owen Moore (Mary Pickford's first husband), and additional comic relief is provided by wonderful Karl Dane (who looks almost handsome here!), and perky Louise Fazenda, who actually was quite pretty when young, so it was brave of her to agree to look ugly for this film. Not to mention our own little favorite funny man, Snitz Edwards, who is always a barrel of laughs in every film he's in, simply by hamming it up for the camera.

The plot doesn't have much to do with the Victor Herbert operetta; that was more of a serious story, and sometimes the pace of this film seemed a bit fragmented, but overall it really is a crowd-pleaser and needs to be more widely available; just one more example of Marion Davies' astounding comedic abilities. She was so much more than just Hearst's paramour! She was the first screwball comedienne! (Also a woman with a big heart, since apparently she was instrumental in getting Roscoe Arbuckle this directorial job and I'm sure his influence added to the comedy).

8 out of 10.

Update: TCM is airing this film in April 2007 for the first time.

While this film isn't nearly as good as Marion Davies' best comedy, SHOW PEOPLE, it is still a pretty good silent comedy. It is NOT sophisticated and the humor is rarely laugh out loud funny, but it is nonetheless a sweet movie about mistaken identity as well as a poor and abused girl finally getting a break. Ms. Davies played an abused young lady--much like Cinderella. However, despite her nasty boss, she maintains a sweet disposition and eventually this decency is rewarded when she meets the right man. However, at about the same time, another woman is being forced to marry a man she does not love and so the two briefly change places--creating some mildly amusing moments. All in all, this is a nice movie with a few mild laughs--well made but not exactly life changing.

By the way, Davies' pet mouse is named "Ignatz" in honor of the Krazy Kat cartoons.

The saddest thing about The Red Mill is that it never got a sound adaption so the Victor Herbert-Henry Blossom score was never heard. Watching it I was hoping at least to hear some of the songs on the sound track. But there was nary a note of Herbert's heard in the film.

The Red Mill was a vehicle for the famous vaudeville team of Fred Stone and David Montgomery and ran in the 1906-07 season for 274 performances. The score consisted of such Herbert classics as In Old New York and Every Day Is Lady's Day With Me and Moonbeams. Purportedly there was a planned remake of it that was shelved that would have starred Laurel and Hardy. It might have been a great film.

This version has the plot somewhat altered to fit Marion Davies who plays a Dutch barmaid who falls in love with visiting Irishman Owen Moore. It's a good thing that Roscoe Arbuckle directing under the pseudonym William Goodrich was in charge. He saw that Davies got some nice comedy bits at which she was so much better at than some of the heavy dramatics that William Randolph Hearst her patron and paramour saw as her strength.

MGM spent a lot of money designing some great sets including a Dutch mill where Davies spends the climax trying to elude the villain with Moore trying to rescue her. It's similar to the rather outlandish and funny climax in the rollicking film Many Rivers To Cross that starred Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker with Davies her own worst enemy in the rescue.

The mill itself is very similar to the one in the Frankenstein movies over at Universal. It's quite remarkable even for today.

I'm disappointed in not hearing any Victor Herbert music, but Marion Davies is quite good in this film.