''Lummox'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

sound film directed by

Herbert Brenon Herbert Brenon (born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon; 13 January 1880 – 21 June 1958) was an Irish-born U.S. film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of silent films through the 1930s. Brenon was among the early film ...

and starring

Winifred Westover Winifred Westover, birth name Winifred Heide, (November 9, 1899 – March 19, 1978) was an actress of the 1910s and 1920s. Her career included films made in Hollywood, Sweden and New York.Bill Hart Is Married Here, ''The Los Angeles Times'' ...

. It was released through

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

, and based on a 1923 novel by

Fannie Hurst Fannie Hurst (October 18, 1889 – February 23, 1968) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose works were highly popular during the post-World War I era. Her work combined sentimental, romantic themes with social issues of the d ...

. Sound engineer Ed Bernds did not have fond memories of Brenon. "So many of the silent film directors were phonies. I didn't think highly of Herbert Brenon, for instance. He was the old, imperious type of director. Lordly, demanding. There was a scene in ''Lummox'', where Winifred Westover was supposed to be betrayed by Ben Lyon, who has gotten her pregnant. He throws some money down and she takes the money and tears it up with her teeth. Well, Brenon demanded real money! And several takes. The poor propman was going around borrowing money from the crew. It was the Imperial syndrome of silent film directors."

Plot

Berta Osberg, an uneducated Swedish servant, was given the derogatory nickname of Lummox, which means a slow or stupid person. Most people she met criticized her, but Rollo Farley, her employers' son, felt inspired by Berta, and wrote poetry about her, with lines that included "A tower of silence under the sea." Rollo seduced Berta, and when she discovered she was pregnant, she left her employment without telling anyone of her condition. Her child was given to a wealthy family, and she sometimes learned about him from one of the family's servants. She was told the boy played the piano, and that his parents were sending him to Europe to study music. He was inspired to be a musician because of a concertina Bertha anonymously sent to her son. Berta learned her son will be playing at Carnegie Hall. She bought a standing-room ticket and was able to see and hear her handsome son play the piano. At the end of the film Bertha was too old to be hired as a servant. She went into a bakery run by a kind widower, and was asked to live in his home and care for his motherless children.

Cast

– Bertha Oberg *

Dorothy Janis Dorothy Janis (born Dorothy Penelope Jones, February 19, 1912 – March 10, 2010) was an American actress. Early life Born as Dorothy Penelope Jones in Dallas, Texas, her short film career began when she was visiting a cousin, who was working ...

– Chita (*billed as Dorothy King) *

Lydia Yeamans Titus Lydia Yeamans Titus (12 December 1857 – 30 December 1929) was an Australian-born American singer, dancer, comedienne, and actress who had a lengthy career in vaudeville and cinema. She was remembered on stage for her ''Baby-Talk'' act and a ...

– Annie Wennerberg *

Ida Darling Ida Darling (February 23, 1880 – June 5, 1936) was an American actress of the stage and in silent motion pictures. Biography Darling was born in New York City. She performed on the New York stage for 40 years. During the 10 years she re ...

– Mrs. Farley *

Ben Lyon Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American film actor and a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox who later acted in British radio, films and TV. Early life and career Lyon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alvine ...

– Rollo Farley * Myrta Bonillas – Veronica Neidringhous *

Cosmo Kyrle Bellew Cosmo Kyrle Bellew (November 23, 1883–January 25, 1948) was a British/American vaudeville and film actor. Cosmo Bellew in 1925 Biography Bellew, the son of noted silent film actor Kyrle Bellew and Alice Racketrow, was born in London, England, ...

– John Bixby *Anita Bellew – Mrs. John Bixby *Robert Ullman – Paul Bixby *Clara Langsner – Mrs. Wallenstein Sr. * William Collier, Jr. – Wally Wallenstein *

Edna Murphy Edna Murphy (November 17, 1899 – August 3, 1974) was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 80 films between 1918 and 1933. Murphy was voted "Most Photographed Movie Star of 1925" by '' ScreenLand Magazine''. For part of ...

– May Wallenstein *

Torben Meyer Torben Emil Meyer (1 December 1884 – 22 May 1975) was a Danish-American character actor who appeared in more than 190 films in a 55-year career. He began his acting career in Europe before moving to the United States. Early life Meyer was ...

– Silly Willie *

Fannie Bourke Fannie Bourke, also known as Fan Bourke or Fannie Burke, (July 12, 1886 – March 9, 1959) was an American stage and film actress, suffragist, and motion picture exhibitor. She worked on Broadway and appeared in silent films from the 1910s u ...

– Mrs. McMurtry *

Myrtle Stedman Myrtle Stedman (born Myrtle Lincoln; March 3, 1883 – January 8, 1938) was an American leading lady and later character actress in motion pictures who began in silent films in 1910. Biography Stedman was born Myrtle Lincoln in Chicago, Ill ...

– Mrs. Ossetrich *Danny O'Shea – Barney *

William Bakewell William Bakewell (May 2, 1908 – April 15, 1993) was an American actor who achieved his greatest fame as one of the leading juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Early years Bakewell was a native of Los Angeles, where he at ...

– Paul Charvet * Sidney Franklin – Mr. Meyerbogen * Dickie Moore – Bit *Billy Seay – Petey

Production

In order to portray the heavyset servant Westover ate fatty food, avoided exercise, and gained forty pounds. To help her appear to be a person who worked long hours of wearying labor the director gave her shoes soled with fifteen pounds of lead, and had her wear a dress with five pounds of lead weights in the collar, five pounds of lead in each of the sleeve cuffs, and ten pounds of weights in the hem of her skirt. She received praise for her acting, with one newspaper stating: "

’s characterization of the buxom servant girl, whose little world has been the drab atmosphere of cheap lodging houses, shabby humanity and cruel employers, reaches heights rarely ever attained." It has at times been incorrectly reported that she was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

for her performance in the film. Academy Awards databases make no mention of such a nomination however.

Preservation status

A copy of the film survives at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

, and archival copies of the soundtrack are preserved at the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

on five discs. The film had a Movietone soundtrack, however, discs were prepared for theaters not yet wired for

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...

References

External links

''Lummox'' at IMDB''Lummox'' at AllMovie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lummox 1930 films Films directed by Herbert Brenon United Artists films 1930 drama films American drama films American black-and-white films Films based on works by Fannie Hurst 1930s American films Films scored by Hugo Riesenfeld