''Proud Flesh'' is a 1925 American silent

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

King Vidor King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...

and starring

Eleanor Boardman Olive Eleanor Boardman (August 19, 1898 – December 12, 1991) was an American film actress of the silent era. Early life and career Olive Eleanor Boardman was born on August 19, 1898, the youngest child to George W. Boardman and Janice Merriam ...

, Pat O'Malley, and

Harrison Ford Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America. He is the recipient o ...

in a romantic triangle.

Plot

San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

orphan, Fernanda (Boardman) is adopted and raised as a gentlewoman by relatives in Spain. As a girl she is courted by Don Jaime (Ford), but spurns him and returns to her gauche relatives in California. There she falls in love with a young bathtub manufacturer, Pat (O’Malley).

Cast

Reception

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', called the film "a bright entertainment in which there are a slight touch of heart interest and plenty of amusement."

Theme

Vidor made this film, the last of a cycle of four films, in the years just following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The isolationist outlook of many Americans with regard to war-ravaged Europe prompted Vidor to locate the sources of “sexual experimentation and marital triangles” and other social infidelities of the Jazz Age in the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

. Decadent European manners were contrasted with the fundamentally commonsense virtues that Vidor believed would prevail in the United States.Durgnat and Simmon 1988 p. 54, p. 56

Footnotes

References

*Baxter, John. 1976. ''King Vidor''. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number . * Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. ''King Vidor, American.'' University of California Press, Berkeley.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Proud Flesh 1925 films 1925 comedy-drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films about orphans Films based on American novels Films directed by King Vidor Films with screenplays by Harry Behn Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1920s American films Silent American comedy-drama films 1920s English-language films