Fleur des sables

Given the movies' fascination with Arabia -- one need only consider Valentino as THE SHEIK, the frequent remakes of BEAU GESTE, UNDER TWO FLAGS, THE FOUR FEATHERS, and David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, this should have been an interesting movie. Unhappily, it isn't. I have seen about half a dozen of Miss Talmadge's starring films and they are typical industry superstar productions: lots of money spent on production values -- the sets, particularly the interiors, are gorgeous and the compositions great, but what happened to the script? Particularly when it was written by Frances Marion? I think too many of the choices were directed towards what was hot at the moment. Imagine Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut made up to look like Valentino, including spit curls, depending on which shot you're looking at, and you will understand some of the issues. Others include:

Miscasting: Miss Talmadge is the most Irish-looking Arab you'll ever see. Yes, I know the name 'Talmadge' is Welsh. She still looks Irish. She also looks as if she has recently lost a lot of weight. Did she and Joe Schenck have children and were any born a few months before this went into production?

Plot Holes: a character is caught by the Tuareg army, shot, left for dead and still beats the army into town by half an hour.

Silly Details: Miss Talmadge's character is named Normahal. Does this mean she is normal, actually Norma Halmaj or the first cousin on her father's side to the Taj Mahal?

It is said that Mary Pickford seriously considered having her films destroyed at her death. That would have been a pity, as Miss Pickford's films are always honest in their emotional and story-telling bases. Miss Talmadge's movies, in this period, however, would seem to be the sort of over-produced tripe that is better forgotten, no matter how popular it was at the time.

THE SONG OF LOVE stars Norma Talmadge at the height of her stardom in a heap of hokum with a lot of sand. She's a famous dancing girl in Algeria, sort of promised to Ramilka (Arthur Edmund Carewe), but she falls for another man (a limp Joseph Schildkraut) who is posing as an Arab but is really French. Ramilka is about to rally the clans and drive the Whites out of the city in the name of allah but of course Norma gets in the middle of everything and fouls up the plans. In the end, she sacrifices her great love for Schildkraut to go off with Ramilka and thereby saving his life. There are two endings and neither is very satisfying. Co-directed by Frances Marion, so this film is included in the recent women film pioneers collection. Carewe's name is misspelled as Carew in the credits and one intertitle omitted the word "do" and gave us "So with me as you will!" I know what I wanted to with it!

This is definitely the weakest of the Talmadge feature films I've seen. A major downfall is the casting of Schildrkaut as the romantic lead. He always reminds me of Michel Serrault in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, so all ideas of a romantic leading man are dissolved.