''The Marriage Market'' is a 1923 American silent

romantic comedy 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 ...

film directed by

Edward LeSaint Edward LeSaint (January 1, 1871 – September 10, 1940) was an American stage and film actor and director whose career began in the silent era. He acted in over 300 films and directed more than 90. He was sometimes credited as Edward J. Le Sa ...

and starring

Pauline Garon Marie Pauline Garon (September 9, 1900 – August 30, 1965) was a Canadian American silent film, feature film, and stage actress. Early life Marie Pauline Garon was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 9, 1898, the daughter of Pierre-A ...

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 Alice Lake. The film was released by the

CBC Film Sales Corporation Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation (also known as CBC Film Sales or simply CBC) was an American film studio that was founded on June 19, 1918 by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn and their friend and co-worker at Independent Moving Pictures ...

, which would later become

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, mischievous pranks lead to the expulsion of Theodora Bland from a young woman's fashionable academy. She aids Dora Smith, who is escaping from a reform school, and later impersonates her in the home of novelist Roland Carruthers. The latter hides her from the Sheriff. Theodora's relatives endeavor to force her into an unwelcome marriage. After various adventures, she defeats their schemes and weds Roland.

Cast

Production

A historical sequence in the film reproduces the scene depicted in the 1875 painting '' The Babylonian Marriage Market'' by

Edwin Long Edwin Longsden Long (12 July 1829 – 15 May 1891) was a British genre, history, biblical and portrait painter. Life and works Long was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of James Long, a hairdresser, (from Kelston in Somerset), and was edu ...

, which was also done in the Babylonian story of ''

Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity Hypersensitivity (also called hypersensitivity reaction or intolerance) refers to undesirable reactions produced by the normal immune system, including allergies and autoimmunity. They are usual ...

'' (1916).

Preservation and status

Complete copies are held 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 ar ...

and the

National Archives of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...

References

Bibliography

* Jeanine Basinger (2013). ''I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies''. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

External links

* * 1923 films 1923 comedy films Silent American comedy films Films directed by Edward LeSaint American silent feature films 1920s English-language films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures films 1920s American films {{silent-film-stub