''Scarlet Seas'' is a surviving 1929 American silent romantic adventure film produced by

Richard A. Rowland Richard A. Rowland (December 8, 1880 – May 12, 1947) was an American studio executive and film producer. Career Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rowland was the head of Metro Pictures Corporation from 1915 to 1920, a studio he founded in ...

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 picture was directed by John Francis Dillon. It starred

Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's '' Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and ...

Betty Compson Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and ...

, and a teen-aged

Loretta Young Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...

. This film was released with a Vitaphone soundtrack of music and effects which survive. Originally, the film was presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

. The story was written by

W. Scott Darling William Scott Darling (May 28, 1898 – October 29, 1951) was a Canadian-born writer and a pioneer screenwriter and film director in the Hollywood motion picture industry. He is often known in Hollywood histories as Scott Darling, though he was ...

Cast

as Steven Dunkin *

as Rose *

as Margaret Barbour *James Bradbury Sr. as Johnson * Jack Curtis as Toomey *Knute Erickson as Captain Barbour ''uncredited'' *Shorty English as Sailor

Critical reception

A review in ''

Harrison's Reports ''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...

'' found that the film contains "offenses to logic", including the nimbleness of the hero and heroine as they climb a rope ladder despite having survived days of hunger and thirst and the way the hero easily overcomes "a giant", lifts him, and throws him overboard.

Preservation status

The film was long thought to be

. A print has been discovered in Italy at

Cineteca Italiana Cineteca Italiana is a private film archive located in Milan, Italy, established in 1947, and as a foundation in 1996. History Established in 1947, and as a foundation in 1996, the Cineteca Italiana houses over 20,000 films and more than 100,000 p ...

.''see-----''Library of Congress, American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog

References

External links

* *
''Scarlet Seas''
at silentera.com *Lobby posters of the film
#1
.
#2Southseascinema.org
a website devoted to island themed films *Surviving Vitaphone track samples
#1#2#3#4#5 Vitaphone Soundtrack Collection
1928 films American silent feature films First National Pictures films Films directed by John Francis Dillon 1920s adventure films American adventure films American black-and-white films 1920s rediscovered films Seafaring films 1920s romance films American romance films Rediscovered American films 1920s American films Silent adventure films {{silent-adventure-film-stub