The new year begins and with that we celebrate the natal anniversary of one of this blog's favorite silver screen comediennes, the very funny, talented, genuinely charming and unfairly maligned Marion Davies, born Marion Cecilia Douras in Brooklyn, NY on January 3, 1897.
It would take dozens of blog posts to scratch the surface of her life and times, relationship with newspaper publishing magnate/tycoon William Randolph Hearst, numerous movies and even lengthier list of philanthropic endeavors.
For a quick reminder of how funny she was, here's Marion, doing impersonations of fellow silent movie divas Mae Murray, Lillian Gish and Pola Negri in THE PATSY (1928).
Marion crammed two or three eventful lifetimes into her 64 years on this earth - Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, movie actress, humanitarian, San Simeon "hostess with the mostest," businesswoman/entrepreneur, activist and founder of The Marion Davies Children's Clinic.
Thankfully, Lara Gabrielle's book Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies has done as detailed and thorough a job as humanly possible chronicling those many roles on and offscreen. It even got a most favorable review from Will Hearst, the grandson of William Randolph Hearst.
Hearst a.k.a. "W.R." launched Davies in movies in 1917 and preferred her as a grande dame in epic period pieces. On one hand, Hearst made it possible for Marion to be a movie star. On the other hand, in both strongly resisting featuring her in comedies and interfering with productions, Hearst also hindered the progress of her silver screen career.
That said, When Knighthood Was in Flower and Little Old New York were the biggest box-office hits of 1922-23. Hearst's hunches regarding the degree of Marion's onscreen charisma and star power turned out to be correct.
Beverly of Graustark, The Cardboard Lover, Enchantment, The Bride's Play, Lights of Old Broadway, Zander The Great, Yolanda, Beauty's Worth, The Restless Sex, The Red Mill, and Tillie The Toiler were also box-office hits.
This writer and silent film fan is partial to her end of silent era comedies directed by King Vidor, The Patsy and Show People - and extends big time thanks to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for providing opportunities to see Marion get laughs on the big screen in these two terrific films.
The Patsy and Show People, both directed by King Vidor, are hilarious!
Marion co-stars with the larger-than-life Marie Dressler in the former and wry comic actor William Haines in the latter. Why Irving Thalberg did not propose a potential Marion Davies - Marie Dressler - Buster Keaton MGM feature as a possibility we'll never know.
Show People remains one of Marion's most memorable starring vehicles.
Marion followed her performances in The Red Mill, Tillie The Toiler, The Patsy and Show People with a successful transition to talkies, which included several musicals. She is among the numerous MGM stars to appear in The Hollywood Revue Of 1929, beginning at about 53 minutes, after Laurel & Hardy's segment.
Her comedy chops and joie de vivre enlivened such 1930's MGM films as It's A Wise Child, Polly Of The Circus, Blondie Of The Follies and Going Hollywood.
Another celebrated pre-Code film, the Marion Davies vehicle It's A Wise Child, exists in a 35mm nitrate print at UCLA, but, due to rights issues, has been entirely out of circulation for decades. Asked the expert, Davies biographer and historian Lara Gabrielle about this and learned that it still can't be shown publicly because, while the rights still technically belong to the heirs of the fellow who wrote the play the screenplay was adapted from. . . there are no heirs.
It's A Wise Child was adapted from a play by Laurence E. Johnson, who died in 1933. Johnson's estate, however, still owns the rights to the movie. This, rather than risque content would appear to be why it was not among the films not chosen when the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer package of features was released to television. The account from one person who was seen UCLA's 35mm print, Nick Langdon of the Marion Davies tribute website, it is among her very best films.
Maybe this excellent Davies comedy will eventually be extricated from the legal entanglements and rights Twilight Zone and made available to the classic film loving public. Then again, maybe not. One would hope the rights issues could be resolved, 94 years after It's A Wise Child was produced.
She co-starred with then up-and-coming star Bing Crosby in one of his first feature films, Going Hollywood.
Marion Davies was the Turner Classic Movies star of the month a few years back and it's great that the intros and outros to her starring vehicles are still up on YouTube.
Thanks, Alicia Malone and TCM!
Marion finished her career at Warner Brothers, retiring from movies in 1937.
Marion Davies was among the great comediennes of motion pictures, whose sensibility would be a forerunner of the screwball comedy style that emerged as she was finishing her career in the mid-1930's.
Thankfully, there are very good films of hers, silents and talkies, available on Blu-ray and DVD. For more, check out the documentary Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001).
This and Lara Gabrielle's biography go a long way to dispel the myths, misinformation, lies and b.s. - thanks, Mank - about Marion Davies, who is finally getting her due for her many contributions to the art of motion pictures more than 60 years after her passing. At least Orson Welles tried to correct the wrongs done by the otherwise marvelous Citizen Kane by writing the forward to the 1975 book of interviews with Marion, The Times We Had: Life With William Randolph Hearst.
