Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 15, 2010 11:18:15 GMT -6
After The First Kiss (1928) Gary’s next film, Lilac Time, was released on October 18, 1928. Gary was under contract at Paramount but for this film they loaned him out to First National Pictures which would later merge with Warner Brothers.
His leading lady in this one, Colleen Moore, was a big star and had been for several years. Her film Flaming Youth (1923) is usually referred to as the film that put the flapper culture on the map. Unfortunately it is lost but many other of her films from the silent era survive including Ella Cinders, Orchids and Ermine, and Lilac Time. Colleen had the “Louise Brooks” style haircut long before anyone knew who Louise was and she got the idea from a china doll she had.
Colleen had an interesting life in that it was relatively scandal free and she had a normal, happy upbringing. Born at the turn of the twentieth century she passed away in 1988. Her film career began in 1916 and by the early 20s she had become a star. She made a handful of talkies and ended her career in 1934. After Hollywood she raised a family and wrote two books about investing (she was a shrewd investor and had a good business sense about her). She also wrote a book about her experience in Tinsel Town titled Silent Star.
I think one of the most interesting things about her (beside the fact that she had one blue eye and one green eye) is the dollhouse she designed which is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Making dollhouses had been a hobby between Colleen and her father since she was a child and once she became a star and had the money to do it, she decided to build a truly grand fairy tale dollhouse. It’s really an amazing thing and you can read more about it and see pictures of it here:
www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/fairycastle/
Although Colleen did many flapper style films, her characters were quite different from what we might think of as a traditional wild flapper girl. I like to call her “flapper-lite.” Her characters were good girls who sometimes got in over their heads or got mixed up in crazy situations but never anything too scandalous. In Lilac Time she plays Jeannine, a young French country girl who falls for Phillip, a handsome English pilot played by Gary who is billeted at her farm during WWI.
Jeannine and her mother have a large field as part of their farm and it makes a great place for planes to take off and land and so to do their part for the war effort, they are housing a squadron of English pilots. They are mostly young, around the same age as Jeannine, and she feels a certain kinship with them. They kind of treat her like their mascot and she enjoys singing for them at dinner and doing other silly things to try and raise their spirits, especially when members of the group are killed in battle.
She wants to help in any way she can so one day she puts on a pair of dirty overalls, tucks her hair up under a cap and asks the mechanics working on the planes if there is anything she can do. They tease her and tell her she has some grease on her cheek and then one of the men proceeds to “clean” it off by rubbing a greasy rag all over her face. She doesn’t realize it however and she goes about her business seeing if anyone else needs help. She wanders out onto the field just as the new squadron leader, Captain Phillip Blythe, is coming in for a landing. She tries to get out of the way but to no avail and Phillip crashes and ends up smashing part of his plane. He jumps out unhurt but furious at Jeannine who he mistakes for a man. In a funny scene he yells at her and then actually kicks her in the rear knocking her down. When her cap falls off and he realizes it’s a woman, he says he should have spanked her instead!
Later at dinner, Jeannine gives each young man a kiss on the forehead or cheek to brighten their mood. Phillip is last in line and looking forward to his kiss. He does not realize Jeannine is the same young woman he had the altercation with earlier and he is surprised when she gives him a dirty look and moves on. She serves them dinner and unfortunately Phillip gets the short end of the stick as she gives him what looks like a turkey neck and a couple of bones with a tiny bit of meat on them. He then realizes who she is and knowing he won’t be getting a decent supper that night, he goes to his room. Jeannine begins to feel bad for him so she makes him a sandwich and is about to take it up to him when the other soldiers get a fiendish idea. They distract her while one of the men puts a heaping amount of hot mustard on half of the sandwich.
Jeannine and Phillip chat while he eats the untainted half of the sandwich and he explains that he is fighting because everybody has to do their part.
He shows her a picture of his large estate and manor house in England and Jeannine is very moved that he left all that behind to help her country. They decide to be friends and then Jeannine leaves. After she is gone Phillip gets a bite of the hot mustard and thinks she did it on purpose and was only being nice to him to play her prank.
The next day as Phillip and another man are fixing his plane, Jeannine tries to get his attention but he ignores her.
She jumps in his plane and begins playing with the controls when it takes off and they have to chase her around. Finally the plane flips and dumps her out. Phillip rushes to her and is holding her in his arms when his father (he’s a general or something I can’t remember exactly what his title is) drives up with a surprise for his son – he’s brought along Phillip’s fiancé from England. I hate to be rude but the chick playing his fiancé looks like a man! Of course, I’ve thought that about quite a few women who played bit parts in various silents so maybe it’s just me (it’s not me, she really does seem manly – ha!). Phillip greets her rather coldly and then Jeannine goes back home brokenhearted.
Later that night they get word that they’ll be leaving for a big push the next morning and Jeannine, worried about her friends, goes out to her garden filled with lilacs to pray for them. She doesn’t know Phillip is behind her when she says a special prayer for him and wishes that she could feels his arms around her once more. He gently puts his arms around her and then she realizes she’s not dreaming and that he’s really holding her.
They profess their love for each other and he explains that he never loved his fiancé. She then shows him a wall in the garden where the words “love never dies” have been carved.
The next morning she and her mother are evacuating their farm as the enemy is nearing and in the distance she watches Phillip take off, the last of his squadron to leave. His plane malfunctions however and he crashes shortly after take off. Regardless of the danger, Jeannine rushes back to help him and she manages to pull him out of the plane and then flag down an ambulance caravan. They won’t let her go with him and not knowing where they are taking him she begins walking down the road after them. In a touching scene, she meets a dying German soldier lying on the side of the road. At first she is afraid but all he wants is for her to tell his wife what happened to him and he gives Jeannine the picture of his wife he’s been carrying and her address which she takes.
Next we see Jeannine walking through the streets of a city and she walks into a hospital to inquire if by chance Phillip is there. They tell her he was brought there but he has just passed away. In a stupor she staggers out into the street and finding a flower vendor there she purchases a large bunch of lilacs. She then asks a doctor going into the hospital if he will place them next to Phillip “very near his cheek” she says pitifully. She then walks over to a nearby park where some soldiers are recuperating in the bright sunshine. She recognizes one of them as a pilot from her farm and they talk for a while.
We cut to Phillip’s room and see the man did indeed put the lilacs near his cheek and the sweet smell wakes him up. A clerical error led them to tell Jeannine he was dead and when he smells the flowers he knows she must be near. He’s practically bandaged from head to toe but he manages to stagger out of bed and over to the window. He spots Jeannine in the park and he shouts to her but she can’t hear him over the street noise. He continues to yell to her even though he is weak and we can see it’s taking every bit of energy he has to do it. Finally she does hear him but she thinks it’s her imagination until she turns around and sees him hanging out his window arms outstretched to her. She runs to him and finds him collapsed on the floor of his room. They hold each other in their arms as the film fades out.
This is a very sweet film and has some impressive flying scenes similar to Wings. Actually, some of it was rumored to be left over footage from Wings. This film was a smash hit and received rave critical reviews. It also spawned a lovely song “Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time.”
You can hear one version of it here:
www.archive.org/details/JeannineIDreamOfLilacTime
Gary and Colleen both did a good job but they don’t have great chemistry. I believe they love each other but it’s not as strong a connection as he had with other actresses like Jean Arthur and Ingrid Bergman.
Instead of a “conversation with Gary” this time I’ll leave y’all with a funny story. I don’t remember which website I read this on but a few years ago, Lilac Time was screened at a film festival with a live score performed by an organist (sorry, can’t remember his name). Afterwards the organist was talking to some of the audience members and one woman told him she couldn’t understand why they said it was a silent film. The organist asked her what she meant and she told him that she could hear Gary speaking as plain as day. It’s funny how our ears can play tricks on us sometimes.
His leading lady in this one, Colleen Moore, was a big star and had been for several years. Her film Flaming Youth (1923) is usually referred to as the film that put the flapper culture on the map. Unfortunately it is lost but many other of her films from the silent era survive including Ella Cinders, Orchids and Ermine, and Lilac Time. Colleen had the “Louise Brooks” style haircut long before anyone knew who Louise was and she got the idea from a china doll she had.
Colleen had an interesting life in that it was relatively scandal free and she had a normal, happy upbringing. Born at the turn of the twentieth century she passed away in 1988. Her film career began in 1916 and by the early 20s she had become a star. She made a handful of talkies and ended her career in 1934. After Hollywood she raised a family and wrote two books about investing (she was a shrewd investor and had a good business sense about her). She also wrote a book about her experience in Tinsel Town titled Silent Star.
I think one of the most interesting things about her (beside the fact that she had one blue eye and one green eye) is the dollhouse she designed which is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Making dollhouses had been a hobby between Colleen and her father since she was a child and once she became a star and had the money to do it, she decided to build a truly grand fairy tale dollhouse. It’s really an amazing thing and you can read more about it and see pictures of it here:
www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/fairycastle/
Although Colleen did many flapper style films, her characters were quite different from what we might think of as a traditional wild flapper girl. I like to call her “flapper-lite.” Her characters were good girls who sometimes got in over their heads or got mixed up in crazy situations but never anything too scandalous. In Lilac Time she plays Jeannine, a young French country girl who falls for Phillip, a handsome English pilot played by Gary who is billeted at her farm during WWI.
Jeannine and her mother have a large field as part of their farm and it makes a great place for planes to take off and land and so to do their part for the war effort, they are housing a squadron of English pilots. They are mostly young, around the same age as Jeannine, and she feels a certain kinship with them. They kind of treat her like their mascot and she enjoys singing for them at dinner and doing other silly things to try and raise their spirits, especially when members of the group are killed in battle.
She wants to help in any way she can so one day she puts on a pair of dirty overalls, tucks her hair up under a cap and asks the mechanics working on the planes if there is anything she can do. They tease her and tell her she has some grease on her cheek and then one of the men proceeds to “clean” it off by rubbing a greasy rag all over her face. She doesn’t realize it however and she goes about her business seeing if anyone else needs help. She wanders out onto the field just as the new squadron leader, Captain Phillip Blythe, is coming in for a landing. She tries to get out of the way but to no avail and Phillip crashes and ends up smashing part of his plane. He jumps out unhurt but furious at Jeannine who he mistakes for a man. In a funny scene he yells at her and then actually kicks her in the rear knocking her down. When her cap falls off and he realizes it’s a woman, he says he should have spanked her instead!
Later at dinner, Jeannine gives each young man a kiss on the forehead or cheek to brighten their mood. Phillip is last in line and looking forward to his kiss. He does not realize Jeannine is the same young woman he had the altercation with earlier and he is surprised when she gives him a dirty look and moves on. She serves them dinner and unfortunately Phillip gets the short end of the stick as she gives him what looks like a turkey neck and a couple of bones with a tiny bit of meat on them. He then realizes who she is and knowing he won’t be getting a decent supper that night, he goes to his room. Jeannine begins to feel bad for him so she makes him a sandwich and is about to take it up to him when the other soldiers get a fiendish idea. They distract her while one of the men puts a heaping amount of hot mustard on half of the sandwich.
Jeannine and Phillip chat while he eats the untainted half of the sandwich and he explains that he is fighting because everybody has to do their part.
He shows her a picture of his large estate and manor house in England and Jeannine is very moved that he left all that behind to help her country. They decide to be friends and then Jeannine leaves. After she is gone Phillip gets a bite of the hot mustard and thinks she did it on purpose and was only being nice to him to play her prank.
The next day as Phillip and another man are fixing his plane, Jeannine tries to get his attention but he ignores her.
She jumps in his plane and begins playing with the controls when it takes off and they have to chase her around. Finally the plane flips and dumps her out. Phillip rushes to her and is holding her in his arms when his father (he’s a general or something I can’t remember exactly what his title is) drives up with a surprise for his son – he’s brought along Phillip’s fiancé from England. I hate to be rude but the chick playing his fiancé looks like a man! Of course, I’ve thought that about quite a few women who played bit parts in various silents so maybe it’s just me (it’s not me, she really does seem manly – ha!). Phillip greets her rather coldly and then Jeannine goes back home brokenhearted.
Later that night they get word that they’ll be leaving for a big push the next morning and Jeannine, worried about her friends, goes out to her garden filled with lilacs to pray for them. She doesn’t know Phillip is behind her when she says a special prayer for him and wishes that she could feels his arms around her once more. He gently puts his arms around her and then she realizes she’s not dreaming and that he’s really holding her.
They profess their love for each other and he explains that he never loved his fiancé. She then shows him a wall in the garden where the words “love never dies” have been carved.
The next morning she and her mother are evacuating their farm as the enemy is nearing and in the distance she watches Phillip take off, the last of his squadron to leave. His plane malfunctions however and he crashes shortly after take off. Regardless of the danger, Jeannine rushes back to help him and she manages to pull him out of the plane and then flag down an ambulance caravan. They won’t let her go with him and not knowing where they are taking him she begins walking down the road after them. In a touching scene, she meets a dying German soldier lying on the side of the road. At first she is afraid but all he wants is for her to tell his wife what happened to him and he gives Jeannine the picture of his wife he’s been carrying and her address which she takes.
Next we see Jeannine walking through the streets of a city and she walks into a hospital to inquire if by chance Phillip is there. They tell her he was brought there but he has just passed away. In a stupor she staggers out into the street and finding a flower vendor there she purchases a large bunch of lilacs. She then asks a doctor going into the hospital if he will place them next to Phillip “very near his cheek” she says pitifully. She then walks over to a nearby park where some soldiers are recuperating in the bright sunshine. She recognizes one of them as a pilot from her farm and they talk for a while.
We cut to Phillip’s room and see the man did indeed put the lilacs near his cheek and the sweet smell wakes him up. A clerical error led them to tell Jeannine he was dead and when he smells the flowers he knows she must be near. He’s practically bandaged from head to toe but he manages to stagger out of bed and over to the window. He spots Jeannine in the park and he shouts to her but she can’t hear him over the street noise. He continues to yell to her even though he is weak and we can see it’s taking every bit of energy he has to do it. Finally she does hear him but she thinks it’s her imagination until she turns around and sees him hanging out his window arms outstretched to her. She runs to him and finds him collapsed on the floor of his room. They hold each other in their arms as the film fades out.
This is a very sweet film and has some impressive flying scenes similar to Wings. Actually, some of it was rumored to be left over footage from Wings. This film was a smash hit and received rave critical reviews. It also spawned a lovely song “Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time.”
You can hear one version of it here:
www.archive.org/details/JeannineIDreamOfLilacTime
Gary and Colleen both did a good job but they don’t have great chemistry. I believe they love each other but it’s not as strong a connection as he had with other actresses like Jean Arthur and Ingrid Bergman.
Instead of a “conversation with Gary” this time I’ll leave y’all with a funny story. I don’t remember which website I read this on but a few years ago, Lilac Time was screened at a film festival with a live score performed by an organist (sorry, can’t remember his name). Afterwards the organist was talking to some of the audience members and one woman told him she couldn’t understand why they said it was a silent film. The organist asked her what she meant and she told him that she could hear Gary speaking as plain as day. It’s funny how our ears can play tricks on us sometimes.