''Joanna'' is a 1925 American silent

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

produced and directed by

Edwin Carewe Edwin Carewe (March 3, 1883 – January 22, 1940) was an American motion picture director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. His birth name was Jay John Fox; he was born in Gainesville, Texas. Career After brief studies at the Universities of ...

and distributed by

First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

. The film was based on the short story "Joanna, of the Skirts Too Short and the Lips Too Red and the Tongue Too Pert" by Henry Leyford Gates. The film starred

Dorothy Mackaill Dorothy Mackaill (March 4, 1903 – August 12, 1990) was a British-American actress, most active during the silent-film era and into the pre-Code era of the early 1930s. Early life Born in Sculcoates, Kingston upon Hull in 1903 (although she l ...

and

Jack Mulhall John Joseph Francis Mulhall (October 7, 1887 – June 1, 1979) was an American film actor beginning in the silent film era who successfully transitioned to sound films, appearing in over 430 films in a career spanning 50 years. Early years Mu ...

, and it also marked the first motion picture appearance of Mexican actress

Dolores del Río María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...

Plot

As described in a review in a film magazine, Joanna (Mackaill), a poor saleswoman in a swell establishment is suddenly notified that a million dollars has been placed to her credit. This gives her an entree into the fast wealthy set but results in alienating her real sweetheart, a struggling young architect. There follows an era of gay parties and reckless spending and in a couple of years the million is gone. Her wealthy admirer (Nicholson) makes a proposal without mentioning marriage and she almost kills him. She then learns it was an experiment resulting from a discussion among wealthy men as to whether the modern girl would remain "good" in the face of temptation after acquiring a taste of luxury, and she was selected because one of the men who formerly loved her mother believed in her. This man adopts her as his daughter and her sweetheart comes back to her.

Cast

Reception

A review noted that the film was similar to another that Mackaill had recently starred in. Both ''

Chickie ''Chickie'' is a 1925 American silent drama film produced and released by First National Pictures. Based on the novel of the same name by Elenore Meherin, the film was directed by John Francis Dillon and starred Dorothy Mackaill Dorothy Ma ...

'' (1925) and ''Joanna'' deal with the experiences of a young woman with a regular job among the jazzy ultra-rich class, although the films tell the story from a different angles. Also, in both films Paul Nicholson was cast as the idle rich young man.

Preservation

With no prints of ''Joanna'' located in any film archives, it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

.''Joanna'' at Arne Andersen's Lost Film Files: ''First National Pictures'' 1925
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References

External links