Manslaughter has Cecil B. DeMille serving up another concoction of sex and sin and the necessary redemption. The subject is Leatrice Joy who is one flapper wild child, rich and self indulgent, who lives only for today's pleasures.
She's got none other than the District Attorney pining after her in the person of Thomas Meighan. But Meighan is an upright puritanical sort of guy who takes his job seriously. When Joy is arrested for running down someone in a car she was driving while intoxicated on some illegal liquor Meighan throws the book at her and she gets a three years in the joint.
In his autobiography Cecil B. DeMille mentions two things of note about Manslaughter. First he paid great tribute to the stunt driving insofar as staging the scenes of the speeding and the accident. Secondly he recounts how in order to get some atmosphere for the film, his screenwriter and sometimes mistress Jeanie Macpherson got herself arrested on a bogus charge and spent three days in lockup. After three days she figured she had enough atmosphere to tell her tale. It worked because the prison scenes are the best part of the film.
There's also a nice performance her by Lois Wilson who plays Joy's maid who steals from her mistress to get her sick son Michael Moore to a warm climate as the doctor prescribes. She winds up in the same joint as Joy and gives her a life's lesson.
The ending though is maudlin and quite unbelievable. I'll say not a word there.
Looking back on it now one has to remember that the Volstead Act took effect on New Year's Day 1920. As Manslaughter came out in 1922 the events told in this film could not possibly have happened in that two year period. That sort of dampens any enjoyment one might get out of Manslaughter.
She's got none other than the District Attorney pining after her in the person of Thomas Meighan. But Meighan is an upright puritanical sort of guy who takes his job seriously. When Joy is arrested for running down someone in a car she was driving while intoxicated on some illegal liquor Meighan throws the book at her and she gets a three years in the joint.
In his autobiography Cecil B. DeMille mentions two things of note about Manslaughter. First he paid great tribute to the stunt driving insofar as staging the scenes of the speeding and the accident. Secondly he recounts how in order to get some atmosphere for the film, his screenwriter and sometimes mistress Jeanie Macpherson got herself arrested on a bogus charge and spent three days in lockup. After three days she figured she had enough atmosphere to tell her tale. It worked because the prison scenes are the best part of the film.
There's also a nice performance her by Lois Wilson who plays Joy's maid who steals from her mistress to get her sick son Michael Moore to a warm climate as the doctor prescribes. She winds up in the same joint as Joy and gives her a life's lesson.
The ending though is maudlin and quite unbelievable. I'll say not a word there.
Looking back on it now one has to remember that the Volstead Act took effect on New Year's Day 1920. As Manslaughter came out in 1922 the events told in this film could not possibly have happened in that two year period. That sort of dampens any enjoyment one might get out of Manslaughter.