Mae Murray

An anti-Mormon silent drama directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Jesse L. Lasky's Feature Play Company. Mae Murray stars as Dora Hogue, a young woman traveling west with her family when their cabin is overtaken by a Mormon caravan. An elder demands Dora as his plural wife, setting in motion a melodramatic conflict that capitalizes on the anti-Mormon sentiment prevalent at the time. Frank Borzage — better known today as one of Hollywood's great directors — appears as an actor in the role of Tom Rigdon. The film was originally eight reels but cut to five before release. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's lavish adaptation of the operetta follows a American showgirl who marries a European prince, is banished by his royal family, and returns years later as the wealthy widow the whole kingdom is courting. Stroheim, never one for restraint, packed the film with decadent set design, a famous masked-ball sequence, and the kind of obsessive detail that made his productions famously expensive. Mae Murray's ballet training is put to use in extended dance numbers, and John Gilbert plays the prince with the smooth melancholy that made him a silent-era matinee idol. The film was a hit despite the studio's cuts to Stroheim's preferred cut. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Drama · Silent