This is one of several silent movies that are still interesting to watch. "Male and Female" is an early effort by Cecil B. DeMille, and it stars Gloria Swanson, who was about 20 when it was made. Her co-star is Thomas Meighan, who was 20 years her senior and the bigger star in 1919 when "Male and Female" was made. But adorable Lila Lee steals the show as the scullery maid, Tweeny.
Silent movies were very different from talkies. The beginning of the movie introduces the viewers to the cast of characters and tells who plays each role. The introduction is unnecessary and very leisurely, reminding us that audiences in 1919 were very unsophisticated. The title role is Crichton, the family butler to the family of Lord Loam. DeMille has Meighan introduce his character very elegantly, making Crichton admirable from our first view of him (the movie is based on a play called "The Admirable Crichton"). All characterization is done in mime, of course, so the camera lingers on Meighan's face as Crichton's emotions flicker across. Meighan was quite a good actor, effortless and devoid of the mugging we often associate with silent films (most of our experience is with clips from the Keystone Kops, it seems to me). Lila Lee is equally good here, playing a maid who is in love with Crichton, but who can see his secret crush on Lady Mary Lasenby (played by Swanson), a love which must never speak its name because it crashes against the boundary of class.
The family sails to the South Pacific with Crichton and Tweeny in tow, and they apparently run aground on Santa Catalina which substitutes for a tropical paradise. It is here that roles reverse completely, as Crichton somehow knows all the skills not only to survive, but to live in royal comfort: after two years on the island, they have a forge (and appear to have made their pots and pans so well they can be used as mirrors), a potter's wheel, a lovely home, more food than they can eat, and Crichton is treated as the king, with Tweeny and Lady Mary having a cat fight to see who gets to serve his dinner to him.
The lack of sophistication in early movies is either charming or damning depending on your point of view. They use bows which are barely able to launch the arrows out of the frame of the film; parts of the island are clearly a movie set with palm trees and brush, but outside views really do look like they were shot on Santa Catalina, a mountainous island without trees; there's no indication of how these people were able to get iron, but we have a large smelting operation with bellows and kiln made of apparently fireproof bricks. We let those objections pass.
Since this is a C.B. DeMille movie, we have a fantasy scene from Babylon which is more interesting than the movie, foreshadowing DeMille's rise as the master of spectacle with a cast of thousands and sets to match. In the fantasy, Crichton plays a Babylonian king, Tweeny his would-be queen, and Lady Mary the Christian slave captured but refusing to kneel. Crichton tells her to accept his advances willingly or go to the lions; Lady Mary of course chooses death before debauchery. These scenes show DeMille already advanced in setting up tableaux and scenery which are beautifully composed and shot.*
Our hero and his charges are rescued and returned to England where the roles are unreversed, and Crichton returns to being a servant, unable to marry Lady Mary, who has learned to love him. Instead, Crichton accepts Tweeny as his wife, they emigrate to America, and live happily ever after as farmers. At the end, we see Lady Mary accepting the offer of marriage from a suitor who acknowledges that her love will always be with the absent Crichton, and the last shot of her fades with Swanson showing an empty sadness. We then dissolve into Crichton and Tweeny on their farm, and the movie ends with their embrace, both obviously in love. I'm sorry to have missed what I think would have been some excellent character development in seeing how Tweeny made Crichton's love bloom, apparently making him forget Lady Mary. To Lee's credit, I think she could have pulled it off. And I miss Lady Mary's remorse in choosing not to marry Crichton for love, choosing instead to maintain her peerage and her money.
This is an interesting movie in spite of its shortcomings. We see Gloria Swanson at the start of her career; many of us remember her better for her role in "Sunset Boulevard" (released in 1950**) where she played the aging actress with the constant refrain, "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille." In 1919, Thomas Meighan was at his peak, a manly man with a soft streak for beautiful women. And Lila Lee had not yet suffered her several failures of luck, work, and health. We also see that DeMille was not at his best with naturalistic scripts and that his segue into epic movies was a good career move.
*Silent movies can be truly beautiful, as the directors, lighting directors, and cinematographers worked together to create shots as compelling as still photograph. The silent camera can linger on an empty shot, then have a character enter and pose, beautifully lighted in luscious black and white while we admire the tableau. For some reason, none of this works in color. Black and white film made better photographers of its directors. DeMille showed his genius for sets and spectacle in the Babylon fantasy, while letting the main story fall to mere competence.
**"Sunset Boulevard," of course, is a remarkable movie in its own right. The cast included not only Gloria Swanson but Cecil B. DeMille himself, Eric von Stroheim, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and other well-known actors.
Silent movies were very different from talkies. The beginning of the movie introduces the viewers to the cast of characters and tells who plays each role. The introduction is unnecessary and very leisurely, reminding us that audiences in 1919 were very unsophisticated. The title role is Crichton, the family butler to the family of Lord Loam. DeMille has Meighan introduce his character very elegantly, making Crichton admirable from our first view of him (the movie is based on a play called "The Admirable Crichton"). All characterization is done in mime, of course, so the camera lingers on Meighan's face as Crichton's emotions flicker across. Meighan was quite a good actor, effortless and devoid of the mugging we often associate with silent films (most of our experience is with clips from the Keystone Kops, it seems to me). Lila Lee is equally good here, playing a maid who is in love with Crichton, but who can see his secret crush on Lady Mary Lasenby (played by Swanson), a love which must never speak its name because it crashes against the boundary of class.
The family sails to the South Pacific with Crichton and Tweeny in tow, and they apparently run aground on Santa Catalina which substitutes for a tropical paradise. It is here that roles reverse completely, as Crichton somehow knows all the skills not only to survive, but to live in royal comfort: after two years on the island, they have a forge (and appear to have made their pots and pans so well they can be used as mirrors), a potter's wheel, a lovely home, more food than they can eat, and Crichton is treated as the king, with Tweeny and Lady Mary having a cat fight to see who gets to serve his dinner to him.
The lack of sophistication in early movies is either charming or damning depending on your point of view. They use bows which are barely able to launch the arrows out of the frame of the film; parts of the island are clearly a movie set with palm trees and brush, but outside views really do look like they were shot on Santa Catalina, a mountainous island without trees; there's no indication of how these people were able to get iron, but we have a large smelting operation with bellows and kiln made of apparently fireproof bricks. We let those objections pass.
Since this is a C.B. DeMille movie, we have a fantasy scene from Babylon which is more interesting than the movie, foreshadowing DeMille's rise as the master of spectacle with a cast of thousands and sets to match. In the fantasy, Crichton plays a Babylonian king, Tweeny his would-be queen, and Lady Mary the Christian slave captured but refusing to kneel. Crichton tells her to accept his advances willingly or go to the lions; Lady Mary of course chooses death before debauchery. These scenes show DeMille already advanced in setting up tableaux and scenery which are beautifully composed and shot.*
Our hero and his charges are rescued and returned to England where the roles are unreversed, and Crichton returns to being a servant, unable to marry Lady Mary, who has learned to love him. Instead, Crichton accepts Tweeny as his wife, they emigrate to America, and live happily ever after as farmers. At the end, we see Lady Mary accepting the offer of marriage from a suitor who acknowledges that her love will always be with the absent Crichton, and the last shot of her fades with Swanson showing an empty sadness. We then dissolve into Crichton and Tweeny on their farm, and the movie ends with their embrace, both obviously in love. I'm sorry to have missed what I think would have been some excellent character development in seeing how Tweeny made Crichton's love bloom, apparently making him forget Lady Mary. To Lee's credit, I think she could have pulled it off. And I miss Lady Mary's remorse in choosing not to marry Crichton for love, choosing instead to maintain her peerage and her money.
This is an interesting movie in spite of its shortcomings. We see Gloria Swanson at the start of her career; many of us remember her better for her role in "Sunset Boulevard" (released in 1950**) where she played the aging actress with the constant refrain, "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille." In 1919, Thomas Meighan was at his peak, a manly man with a soft streak for beautiful women. And Lila Lee had not yet suffered her several failures of luck, work, and health. We also see that DeMille was not at his best with naturalistic scripts and that his segue into epic movies was a good career move.
*Silent movies can be truly beautiful, as the directors, lighting directors, and cinematographers worked together to create shots as compelling as still photograph. The silent camera can linger on an empty shot, then have a character enter and pose, beautifully lighted in luscious black and white while we admire the tableau. For some reason, none of this works in color. Black and white film made better photographers of its directors. DeMille showed his genius for sets and spectacle in the Babylon fantasy, while letting the main story fall to mere competence.
**"Sunset Boulevard," of course, is a remarkable movie in its own right. The cast included not only Gloria Swanson but Cecil B. DeMille himself, Eric von Stroheim, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and other well-known actors.