1924 - Colonial Theater Ad - 3 Mar MC - Allentown PA

''The Humming Bird'' (also known as ''Les loups de Montmartre'') is a 1924 American silent

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

directed by

Sidney Olcott Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter. Biography Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...

and starring

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

. Produced by

Famous Players–Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and t ...

and distributed by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, the film is based on the play of the same name by

Maude Fulton Maude Fulton (May 14, 1881 – November 9, 1950) was an American actress, playwright, stage director, theater manager, and later a Hollywood screenwriter. Early life Born in 1881 in El Dorado, Kansas, she was the daughter of newspaperman Titu ...

, who also starred in the Broadway production.Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Humming Bird''
at silentera.com

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, Toinette, alias "The Humming Bird" and member of the

Apaches The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and ...

, commits many successful robberies in Paris while disguised as a young man. She falls in love with Randall Carey, an American newspaper correspondent. Randall joins the army when

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

breaks out. Toinette persuades her Apache confederate to enlist. She is jailed, but escapes during a Zeppelin bombardment and joins her wounded lover at his aunt's residence. The authorities pardon her and she finds happiness with Randall.

Cast

Production

The film was shot at the

Kaufman Astoria Studios The Kaufman Astoria Studios is a film studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens. The studio was constructed for Famous Players-Lasky in 1920, since it was close to Manhattan's Broadway theater district. The pr ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

Preservation

A print of ''The Humming Bird'' is housed at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and the

Nederlands Filmmuseum Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. Location and history Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in t ...

.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artist Collection at The Library of Congress'', p. 85, c.1978 by The American Film Institute

References

External links

* *
Lobby card and still
at silenthollywood.com

at website dedicated to Sidney Olcott
Long poster; probably an Australian daybill
1924 films 1924 crime drama films American crime drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Famous Players-Lasky films American films based on plays Films directed by Sidney Olcott Films shot in New York City Paramount Pictures films Films shot at Astoria Studios 1920s American films Silent American drama films {{silent-crime-drama-film-stub