Romantic melodrama starring Gloria Swanson as the devoted daughter to a cash-strapped captain. Swanson agrees to marriage with a fat, old, social-climbing grocery tycoon, but on her disappointing honeymoon she falls in love with a young British aristocrat (Rudolph Valentino). The powerhouse combination of director Sam Wood with arguably the two best actors in the romantic silent melodrama genre delivers an engaging and touching story.
How you react to any film depends on your expectations, so it seems that people seeing all the hype about the significance of the recent reclamation of the film were expecting too much. Going in with no expectations, I was enthralled by how really touching an old-fashioned love story can be when the characters do virtually nothing more than exchange glances and graze each other's hands. The attention to detail in the wardrobe, the exotic locations, and the dreamy depiction of British aristocracy in the early 20th Century, make this a must-see for fans of the genre.
How you react to any film depends on your expectations, so it seems that people seeing all the hype about the significance of the recent reclamation of the film were expecting too much. Going in with no expectations, I was enthralled by how really touching an old-fashioned love story can be when the characters do virtually nothing more than exchange glances and graze each other's hands. The attention to detail in the wardrobe, the exotic locations, and the dreamy depiction of British aristocracy in the early 20th Century, make this a must-see for fans of the genre.