''The Belle of the Season'' is a 1919 American silent

comedy-drama 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 ...

film, directed by

S. Rankin Drew Sidney Rankin Drew (September 19, 1891May 19, 1918) was an American actor and film director. Biography Born in 1891, Drew was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew and first cousin of the actors John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymo ...

, and stars

Emmy Wehlen Emily "Emmy" Wehlen (1887–1977) was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties. Biography Wehlen was born in Mannheim, Germany, where, as a teenager, she recei ...

, S. Rankin Drew, and

Walter Hitchcock Walter Edwin Hitchcock (1872 – June 23, 1917) was an American actor. He appeared on stage, in silent films, and had several leading roles. Career Hitchcock was born in 1872 in Malden, Massachusetts or New Castle, Maine. In his youth, Hitchcoc ...

. It was originally scheduled to be released in 1917, but its premiere was delayed until July 28, 1919.

Plot

James Alden is the son of a rich scion, the owner of a great newspaper. When he and his father quarrel over the plight of the poor, he leaves home and goes to live and work in a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

. There he meets Stedman and Johnson, the first a labor leader, the latter a simple thug. Geraldine "Jerry" Keen, known in the papers as the "Billion Dollar Baby", is a rich twenty-year-old heiress, who has just inherited her father's fortune. However, the control of the empire is in the hands of Clifton Brophy, the executor of the father's estate, until she reaches her 21st birthday. She asks Brophy to take her on a tour of her father's holdings, and is appalled by the working conditions in his mills and the living conditions in his tenements and settlement houses. When she pleads with Brophy to do something to improve the conditions, he simply refuses. Unbeknownst to Brophy, "Jerry" disguises herself in the clothes of one of the poor, and heads back to the settlement house, where she begins to work in the evenings. While there, she meets Alden, and the two begin a romance after he comes to her rescue when she is accosted by Johnson. Eventually, Alden proposes to "Jerry", still not knowing her true identity, and the two become engaged. The day before her 21st birthday, Brophy, suspicious of her evening excursions, follows her to the settlement house. Stedmn recognizes him, after which Johnson tries to rile the occupants of the house to attack Brophy. Alden intervenes, saving Brophy, but in the skirmish he is hit in the head by a brick and taken to the hospital. The following day "Jerry" comes of age and meets with Stedman, agreeing to his demands for improvement. When she goes to the hospital to see Alden, and tell him the good news. However, while there, Alden sees the morning paper, which shows a picture of "Jerry", and he finally understands who she is. Furious, he storms out of the hospital, grabbing a taxi. "Jerry" follows close behind, and eventually catches him, where they reconcile and move forward with their marriage.

Cast list

as Geraldine Keen *

as James Alden *

as Clifton Brophy * John Mackin as Stedman, labor leader *

Louis Wolheim Louis Robert Wolheim (March 28, 1880 – February 18, 1931) was an American actor, of both stage and screen, whose rough physical appearance relegated him to roles mostly of thugs or villains in the movies, but whose talent allowed him to fl ...

as Johnson

Production

The film was one of several based on the poetry of

Ella Wheeler Wilcox Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection '' Poems of Passion'' and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you ...

, of which Metro owned all the rights to. The film was shot in towards the end of 1916, and was originally slated for a Spring or Summer 1917 release. However its release was delayed. The picture was shot at Metro's Rolfe Studios in New York. The film was Rankin's first with Metro, having come over from

Vitagraph Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...

. In January 1917, Metro announced the film would be released on March 5, 1917. As late as March 3, the film was still scheduled for a March 5 release, however in mid-April 1918 Metro announced that the release date had been pushed back to May 13, 1918. The release was again pushed back to June 18, 1918, and then again to July 23. In early June 1919 Metro announced that the film was to be released on July 28.

Reception

The Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' panned the film, finding virtually no redeeming quality to it. They called it one of the "more and worse" films of the year. They found fault with the production, stating that "It was tiresome, slow, confusing, unreal, uninteresting -- and about everything else uncomplimentary that could be said." They did, however, give one exemption, finding the work of Emmy Wehlen of note.

Notes

This was the final film of S. Rankin Drew, who left to join the Franco-American Air Corps after production on the film wrapped. Its release was posthumous, as Rankin was killed in action in the spring of 1918.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belle of the Season Films directed by S. Rankin Drew Metro Pictures films Films based on poems American silent feature films American black-and-white films 1910s English-language films 1919 comedy-drama films Films produced by B. A. Rolfe 1910s American films Silent American comedy-drama films English-language comedy-drama films