Silent movies - The Freshman

Two weeks ago we had a college football hero, last week Harold Lloyd, how about Harold Lloyd at college today?
Here's "The Freshman" from 1925.

Public domain via Wikipedia

Today we have a proper plot. As Lloyd says in his autobiography, films like the "Lonesome Luke" ones are gag type comedies, films like "The Freshman" are character comedies which start more slowly and develop.

Harold Lamb is a young man excited for college. He copies a greeting - a little jig and a handshake -, the outfit, and the nickname "Speedy" from his favorite college movie, he has saved some money, he has high expectations about becoming a "college hero" like his movie idol.

On the train he meets Peggy, he gets interested in her crossword puzzle and they get along splendidly.

Once arrived in town, Harold falls right into the hands of the College Cad (no names, it's practically a tpye) for whom he's the perfect victim due to his desire to be popular in connection with his incredible naiveté.

The Cad shows him the "car assigned to him" which is in fact the dean's car and lures him on the stage where the dean is supposed to hold the opening speech by making him save a kitten from a height (if that wasn't enough already to hate the Cad, just wait, there's more to come), then tells him he has to make a speech during which Harold is laughed at by the whole assembly.

Harold holds the rescued kitten, but puts it under his sweater when he needs both
hands free. Mama Kitty urgently wants her baby back.
You understand that I was legally bound (by Gundel) to include these pictures
(and it was hard to keep it down just to these two, the kitten is adorable).

The Cad and his friends - male and female - cheer for Harold who thinks he's on the best way to be popular and invites the group for ice cream, but the Cad keeps inviting more people on the way to the ice cream parlor.
Look who follows them, too!

Again, legally bound.

After spending a good deal of his savings like that, Harold has to downgrade in regards to his living quarters.
There he meets Peggy again who happens to be the landlady's daughter. Harold's shirt has been ripped up when the kitten climbed up it under his sweater and Peggy sews the button on for him. You see him secretly cutting off more buttons.

To up his game, Harold tries out for the football team, but the coach isn't impressed. When their only tackle dummy is damaged, however, they use Harold as a live dummy and even the coach is impressed by his unbroken spirit at the end of the day. To "reward" him, they make him water boy and let him think he's one of the substitutes.

Harold thinks his leg has broken apart, but it's the dummy's leg.

Do you remember Pete from "Our Gang"?
This is his dad, Pal the Wonder Dog, at
six months old. He actually had a three
quarter ring around his eye while
Pete's ring was makeup.
(Gundel wasn't sure you needed to know
that. Always those dogs.)

Harold hosts the "Fall Frolic" dance.
He gets a new suit for the occasion, but his tailor has dizzy spells and therefore can't make it in time, so the suit is only held together by basting stitches and finally falls apart.
From the phone booth he has hidden in, Harold sees how the Cad tries to force himself on Peggy and teaches him a lesson.

The Cad retaliates by telling him that he has never been popular and that it all has just been a big joke.
Harold is devastated, but Peggy comforts him and tells him to stop trying to be someone he isn't and make them like him for what he really is.
Harold sees his chance at the big football game still thinking he's in the team because Peggy who knows the truth didn't have the heart to tell him. When the coach runs out of substitutes because of injuries, he has to send in Harold to avoid the game being forfeited.
Of course, Harold manages a touchdown in the last minute - and with just one shoe on, too!

Sweeter to him than being celebrated by everyone, however, is this note that Peggy slips him while he's being carried into the locker room ...

Let me get something out of the way first.
I hate bullying of all sorts and I really felt for Harold. You are supposed to do that of course, but also still to be able to laugh. Therefore, the scene of him as a live tackle dummy is cut rather short and a scene at the ice cream parlor was actually cut completely according to Lloyd's autobiography because it made the test audience feel too sorry for Harold to be funny.

If you read my post about "Brown of Harvard", you may wonder why I even watched another college movie (by the way, it's said that "The Freshman" kicked off a college movie vogue).
The difference is that I knew bits of "The Freshman" from the olden days when I was still an innocent, fresh-faced kid. Seriously though, I did know parts from the old compilation films. This was Lloyd's financially most successful silent movie and I knew it would be hilarious.
Tom Brown annoys me, but I route for Harold even though they both end up in a big football game, a sport I know even less about than others.
Also Harold's football game is fun because he's still Harold. He's not athletic, he's struggling, and it's a miracle that he suceeds. Tom's isn't because he is a sportsman and we know that he just needs to shed off the old wisecracker's shell, get serious and do it. You know what I mean.
Something that I thought was funny, though - Lea Stans from "Silent-ology" also pointed it out - was that there was absolutely no mention of studying. Even Tom held a stack of books once even if not for long 😂
Then again one of the intertitles said: "Tate University - a large football stadium with a college attached." I wonder if that was the reason why the Germans literally called the movie "The sports student".

Most of all, however, Harold is relatable. He is the ordinary guy who wants to be popular, who wants to be liked, who wants to show what he can do. Probably we all have been there one way or the other, haven't we (I mean, isn't blogging and hoping for reactions a rather good example 😉)?
We can relate to his reaction when the Cad tells him the truth, the shock, trying to laugh it off like it's nothing, then the breakdown. And it's so sweet to see Peggy comforting him and building him up again. The chemistry between Harold and Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) is great.

Yes, and then it is just nice to see the ordinary guy succeed even if it's not very realistic and we know it. It's something we maybe hope for sometimes in our own lives.
"Wait a moment, though," I hear you say. "What was it you said about sports heros?"
The difference for me is that in the end you don't find Harold letting himself be celebrated in a crowd or a parade. You find him alone in the shower - which he turns on by accident without even noticing - with what's important to him. Peggy's note.
 

I love this movie and think it's really funny and sweet.


Sources and further reading:

1. Stephen Winer: The Freshman: Speedy Saves the Day! A Harold Lamb Adventure! On: The Criterion Collection. Essays, March 25, 2014
2. Lea Stans: Thoughts On: "The Freshman". On: Silent-ology, May 23, 2016
3. Harold Lloyd (in collaboration with Wesley W. Stout): An American Comedy, New York, NY, Dover Publ., republication of the 1928 edition

Silent movies - Brown of Harvard

Have you recovered from last week's movie?
This week I bring you "Brown of Harvard" from 1926.

First the plot (with spoilers).

Meet Tom Brown. He's handsome and athletic and his parents are proud of him going to Harvard.
The first thing Tom does there is to start flirting with a young lady in a car - daughter of a professor - the second is falling out with his roommate Bob McAndrews (that's what the intertitles say, but there are pages calling him McAndrew, maybe that was the name in the original stage play?) who's just as handsome and athletic, but also studious.

Instead Tom moves in with Jim Doolittle who's shy and weakly. Tom defends Jim against the others in the dormitory and Jim idolizes him.

William Haines and Jack Pickford
as Tom and Jim

Tom meets Mary again and a rivalry develops between him and Bob over her which escalates when Tom forces a kiss on her.

No means no!

They continue their rivalry in sports, first rowing. Tom replaces Bob after an injury, but fails after a night of heavy drinking over Mary. He decides not to go back to Harvard after the vacation, but his father convinces him to go back if he loves Mary (the old "wear her out" tactics) and also to take up football instead of rowing.

On the day of the big Harvard-Yale game, Jim is lying in bed with a cold. Because of a newspaper article, Tom thinks he's not on the squad, but right after he leaves to pick up his parents, the coach calls setting an ultimatum of 20 minutes or Tom will be off the squad for good.
Of course Jim runs out into the heavy rain to let Tom know and he even hangs on to the streetcar to stop it which ends him up in hospital.

During the football game, Tom hurts his ankle, but when another player hurts himself, he goes back into the game and gains 90 yards before letting Bob make the crucial touchdown. Take that, John Wayne! Indeed this was John Wayne's film debut as a Yale football player, he was uncredited, and I didn't even notice him.

As Tom comes to the hospital to tell Jim, the nurse comes out of the room crying. Jim has died and Tom has a breakdown. But luckily Mary arrives and can comfort him.

The film ends with "The Dickey" (a private social club at Harvard) picking up Tom for a parade as one of the best men of the year, along with Bob.

This is the third "Brown of Harvard" film based on a Broadway play from 1906.

The movie was very popular and "helped" Haines getting typecast in the role of the wisecracking young man who finally gets his life together until the audience tired of that.
I'm already tired of it after just one movie.
While I readily admit that Haines played the role well, I find Tom utterly annoying, and not being a sports fan, I don't think winning a football game, no matter how important, is enough to forgive everything. He behaves "rotten to a very fine girl" (his own words to Jim), not once but twice, and when he doesn't get what he wants, he's like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I always hated that "boys will be boys" excuse.
To be honest, I would have been fine with Bob and Mary getting together.

If she doesn't walk back to the store with me
so I can spend more time with her, I'll
just smash the eggs, jam, and milk and
then she will have to go back.

Haha, what a hilarious idea. Not.
It didn't work, either.

I guess there's the fact that he's quite kind and caring towards Jim. The scene where he rubs liniment on sick Jim's chest is genuinely nice. The scene in which he learns of Jim's death is dramatic, but overacted in my opinion.

Another reason why this movie doesn't work for me is the football game. I have watched sports films, but the sports scenes can't be too long or I get bored. Also I'm not a fan of the "rah rah rah" atmosphere.
It might work for others, well, it obviously did and still does, but I was already too annoyed by Tom.
I will be watching other Billy Haines movies, we'll see if I will like them any better.

Silent movies - The Matrimaniac

Can you believe it has been more than half a year that I watched a Douglas Fairbanks movie? I know that I said Luke the dog has stolen my heart away from Doug, but that doesn't mean I'm forgetting him completely!
Doug had done a lot of other films before going into the swashbuckling business and today I've got one of those for you - The Matrimaniac from 1916!

Funny, the title is "The
Matrimoniac" here, but in
the film itself it clearly
says "Matrimaniac"!

First the plot (spoiler alert!).

Jimmie Conroy and Marna Lewis want to marry, but her father disapproves and wants her to marry Wally instead, so Jimmie and Marna decide to elope. Unfortunately, Wally witnesses their departure and tells Lewis who makes him go to the train to prevent the marriage until he can procure injunctions.
Wally makes it on the train and confronts the lovers.

As they intend to go through with the wedding, anyway, he wants to send a wire to Lewis, but Jimmie talks to the conductor and hatches a plan on his own. He gets out at the next station to look for a reverend to marry Marna and him. Unfortunately Reverend Tubbs is in the tub. Although he has only thrown on a dressing gown and slippers, Jimmie drags him along, but the train pulls out of the station when they arrive and Wally keeps them from boarding.

Running in a dressing gown and slippers is hard!

From here on, Jimmie does everything to help them follow the train and liberally distributes money and I.O.U.s for clothes for the Reverend, a hand car, and a mule, and finally they hitch a ride on the bumpers of another train.

Tubbs is one dedicated reverend although it's
possible the promise of a donation to 
the church helped a little ...

Meanwhile Wally and Marna have made it to the hotel where the lovers had planned to stay. Jimmie and Tubbs are arrested when they get off the train, but Jimmie escapes.
 

Just look at Wally, the smug little weasel.

He calls Marna, who is trapped in her room with Wally sitting in front of the door in the hallway, and tells her to come to the jail, so Tubbs can marry them.
So now Marna has to come up with a plan of her own. She changes clothes with the maid bringing her food and makes it to the jail where the Reverend tells her that Jimmie has been spotted and is chased.
Marna goes back to her hotel room - a wonderful scene in which she "discovers" Wally talking to the maid in the disguise and plays the betrayed woman - and Jimmie ends up on the telephone wires. He comes to a lineman who arranges a connection between Reverend Tubbs in the jail, Marna in her room, and Jimmie on the pole with him.

"Shut up, can't you see I'm getting married?"

Lewis, Wally, and the police are waiting below and start reading the injunction to Jimmie. Hearing about the marriage by phone sends Lewis running to the jail, but too late.
In the end we see Jimmie in his office paying out to the people he gave I.O.U.s. The last one is good old Tubbs who doesn't just get a bunch of money, but also a kiss from the grateful Jimmie!

With everyone gone, Jimmie opens a safe from which Marna emerges right into his arms.

I knew from a documentary that Douglas Fairbanks didn't start out as a swashbuckler but a stunt comedian in romantic comedies, and had also seen one or the other short scene there. So I didn't really know what to expect exactly, but knew it would be nothing like his big features.
This movie was a fun little introduction to those times. There wasn't much plot beside the chase, but Jimmie and the Reverend made a fine pair (I could have done without the mule scene, but that's mostly because people on smaller donkeys or mules always make me feel uncomfortable).
As Fritzi Kramer puts it, there weren't "any major showstopper stunts", but Doug got a bit of climbing and dangling and jumping in - on walls, over people, from wires and gutters.
I certainly enjoyed it.

Further reading:

Fritzi Kramer: The Matrimaniac (1916) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, April 12, 2026

Silent movies - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Maybe you have heard the title of today's movie before as the book it's based on had many adaptations I didn't know the book or any of the movies it inspired over the years (one with Shirley Temple).
I'm talking about "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" from 1917 starring "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford.

Here's the plot (with spoilers!).

Rebecca Randall is one of seven siblings. As her mother's farm has a mortgage, she's sent to live with her two aunts.
On her arrival, Rebecca immediately makes an enemy - Minnie Smellie, the reverend's daughter - and a best friend - Emma Jane Perkins.

Rebecca doesn't care if Minnie complains
to her mother, the whole state of Maine or
even - the PRESIDENT!

She also learns quickly that Aunt Miranda is a very stern woman while Aunt Jane is kind, but doesn't have much to say.

If Rebecca isn't something, it's shy. She stands her ground, she says what she thinks - sometimes a bit too much - and she always has some mischief on her mind, like the big circus performance when her aunts are away.

She also has a good heart, though.
There's a poor family in town - and prepare to be shocked, the couple isn't even married (actually, there was a censor who required the intertitle informing us of this fact to be cut)! Rebecca and Emma Jane sell soap because for sending in 400 wrappers they can get the Simpsons a banquet lamp "which they greatly need" according to what Rebecca tells Alan Ladd, a young man who has made his fortune before coming back to his hometown of Riverboro.

Banquet lamps are tall elaborate oil lamps
which were popular in the 1880s. There
were different styles.

After Alan - well, officially his aunt - buys 350 cakes of soap, he and Rebecca become good friends and she calls him Mr. Aladdin (the name and the lamp, get it?).

When Aunt Miranda spanks Rebecca after she and Jane barge in during the circus performance, the girl decides to run away during a thunderstorm. She gets hit in the head by a flying piece of timber, but Alan finds her and also visits her at home during her recovery.
He even gives her his late mother's wedding ring for passing it on to Dave Simpson (who has stolen his horse before!), so he can finally marry his woman (Rebecca is convinced the problem was just not having a wedding ring). When the sheriff wants to arrest the thief at his wedding party, Alan says he'll drop any action against him as Dave and his wife will now run the farm for him.
Rebecca is so impressed that she tells him that she has decided to marry him when she's grown up.

First her aunts send her to a boarding school, though.
After three years Rebecca comes back as a well educated young lady, only to find Aunt Miranda on her deathbed asking for her forgiveness for being so hard to her. She leaves the house to Rebecca which means her family can live there now after selling Sunnybrook.
At a picknick, Alan reminds Rebecca of what she has said years before, but Rebecca slips away in the last moment and runs off, Alan running after her.

I'll say it before anyone else says it - there are clearly "Anne of Green Gables" vibes here. Or wait, was Lucy Maud Montgomery inspired by Kate Douglas Wiggin?
Actually, Wiggin's book was published in 1903, five years before "Anne of Green Gables" and there are definitely similarities, but Rebecca and Anne would not stay the only ones. Think of "Polyanna" or of the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip.
As I have read "Anne of Green Gables", but not "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" or any of the sequels (maybe I will eventually), I can't judge those similarities myself, but I found an article on it which I will link in the sources.

If you have heard of Mary Pickford or remember my post about her in "Daddy Long Legs", you probably know that Rebecca wasn't the only child she played, girl or boy, not exclusively, though. It helped that she was only 5 feet and the audience loved those roles. There was an outcry when Pickford cut off her signature curls in her 30s!

The movie doesn't have a real narrative, but is showing episodes from Rebecca's life, in a way that allows Pickford to shine and show her range of facial expressions very well and in a very funny way.
The book itself is quite thick and screenwriter Frances Marion took some liberties with the adaptation. In the book, Alan notices at the end that Rebecca may seem a grown-up now, but her eyes are still those of a child, so he doesn't push her on the matter.
I don't know if Rebecca running off in the movie was Marion's way of hinting at a happy ending sometime in the future.
Again (see "Daddy Long Legs"), there's an age gap. In the book, Alan is 34 at the end and Rebecca probably around 19. Weird for us to see, but not unusual for the time.

The movie is more a comedy than a real romance, though. Rebecca entertains half the town with her shenanigans, you should see the audience she has at the circus!
While it's not a surprise that there are a few cringeworthy moments for a modern audience (like one example of blackface and also I didn't like to see the puppy in what looked like a birdcage during the circus parade), it's fun to watch Pickford, no matter if she defends herself with her parasol, wrestles with her conscience about a piece of pie or hangs on a wire in the circus scene for some "bareback riding".


Sources and further reading:

1. Lea Stans: Thoughts On: "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". On: Silent-ology, March 17, 2016
2. Chris Scott Edwards: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917). On: Silent Volume, January 12, 2011
3. Izawa Yuko: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables : Similarities and Differences. In: Jinbun shakai kagaku ronsō, 20(2011), March

Silent movies - "It"

I guess we have all heard the term "it girl". But do you know that the term is 99 years old and was coined after a movie rather loosely based on a serialized novella by Elinor Glyn, a British novelist?
And do you know the original "it girl", Clara Bow?
Today I got the movie "IT" from 1927 for you. Let's find out more, shall we?

The plot (spoilers ahead!).

Waltham's, World's largest store (so modest).
The boss has gone on vacation leaving Waltham's in the hands of his son Cyrus.
Cyrus gets a visit from his friend Monty just when it's time to look over the store. After having read part of Glyn's novella, Monty decides to check which one of the ladies he'll be seeing has the mysterious "IT" which Glyn explains like this: "'IT' is that peculiar quality which some persons possess, which attracts others of the opposite sex. The possessor of 'IT' must be absolutely un-selfconscious, and must have that magnetic "sex appeal" which is irresistible."
Monty has already decided that he has it, Cyrus doesn't, and neither do any of the shopgirls he has seen until Betty Lou Spence catches his eye.

"Hot socks - The new boss!"

And just as smitten as Monty is with Betty, Betty is with Cyrus. She's trying to get his attention, but to no avail, so she's using Monty to get closer to Cyrus although he's dating society lady Adela, and this time it works.
When Cyrus takes Betty home after a date for which she took him to the amusement park, he tries to kiss her and gets himself slapped for it.

Cyrus is enjoying some working class fun.

Then drama strikes. Betty lives together with her sick friend Molly who has a baby (but obviously no baby daddy). Meddling neighbors have alerted welfare workers (official or self-appointed, who knows) who insist on taking Toodles "to the Home" because Molly has no means to support him.
Betty won't let them take the baby, however, she claims it is hers and asks Monty who has come to pick her up to confirm that she has a job.
Monty is so shocked about the baby that he has a few drinks too many and heads over to tell Cyrus who's just writing a letter to Betty asking her forgiveness. To make things worse, the welfare workers turn up as well to have Cyrus confirm that Betty is working at Waltham's.
Of course Betty doesn't know about that, so when she sees Cyrus again, she's confused why he's so aloof at first, but then he confesses he's crazy about her and she says she loves him, too.

The following proposition is not what she has been expecting, though. He offers her diamonds, clothes, everything she wants, but no marriage, and she storms out of his office.
Only when Monty visits her at home carrying baskets with flowers and food, she learns about the reason and being Betty, she plots her revenge right away.
She will accompany Monty on Cyrus's yachting cruise, make Cyrus propose to her properly and refuse him. And Monty will pay for her clothes because he messed things up.
Of course Cyrus isn't happy to see her - as isn't Adela, surprise, surprise - but the plan works out.

I would rather marry your office boy (who's
very much underage, we have met him before)!

Betty finds that refusing the proposal hasn't satisfied her as much as she had expected, rather the opposite.
After having her cry about it on his shoulder, Monty goes to Cyrus to clear things up and Cyrus leaves him at the steering wheel. Big mistake because Monty, distracted by the drama, manages to hit another boat.

Man overboard! Well, actually two ladies.

Betty starts saving the panicking Adela, then Cyrus jumps into the water to help and the yacht crew makes Monty go out in a boat (why does anyone think that's a good idea?).

"Take your girl friend. I had to knock her cold - but
maybe it'll do her good." Not sure about "had to",
there might have been more reasons.

Betty swims off declaring she's going home and Cyrus goes after her when Monty is close enough, leaving Adela to him.
Adela sees them standing on the anchor of the yacht together asking "Monty, I wonder if there's anything between them?" to which he replies smiling "I'm afraid there is."
See for yourself.

From what I read the shopgirl "Cinderella" storyline was very popular at the time - even if in this case the Cinderella doesn't lose her shoe, but throws it on the prince's head to alert him that she's standing on the anchor.
It's rather a light romantic comedy with a bit of social commentary on the side.
I haven't read Glyn's novella, but it doesn't sound as if I would want to read anything of hers. Of her story the film pretty much kept the concept of "it" and not much else it seems. They did give her a cameo in which she's allowed to explain "it" once more. Very unnecessary if you ask me, the blurb from the story would have sufficed. Not that she invented it anyway, by the way.
"'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street." Kipling in "Mrs. Bathurst" 1904.
Glyn extended that to both women and men.

Carl Sandburg said about the movie: "The interest of the picture is the bright stimulation of looking at Clara, of laughing at the subtitles, which are funny, and looking at Clara again."
No matter if it was flirting, enjoying a fairground ride, being angry, eating an apple, or swimming, Clara looked fresh, natural, and spontaneous during all of it.

Making faces at Toodles.

My favorite scene is actually the one in which she throws out the welfare workers (which features a young Gary Cooper as a reporter, by the way, whom I didn't even recognize, but I have never been a fan). The way she waves them out of the door and tells them off is brilliant.

Again Betty is taking things in her hand
(I don't mean Toodles).

I can see "it" in Betty, but maybe not so much in Cyrus. Of course the role didn't offer much opportunity except maybe in the fairground scenes.
Monty was the more interesting character to me because he was such a curious and silly mix. Other than Cyrus he came back to visit Betty (even though he came to "forgive" her for being the single mother she wasn't). However, he also made a - not very convincing - move on her more than once. When she cried about the marriage proposal, he hugged her, but when she pushed him off, he went straight to Cyrus to tell him the truth about the baby. He actually reminded me more of a gay best friend (with a touch of the confusion of Bertie Wooster), but in the end it was hinted at Adela and him getting together.
Adela wasn't treated very fairly. Of course she wasn't happy about Betty, but all she really did was testing her French once because Cyrus said Monty had met Betty in Paris (as if that would have been a reason to know French).

"We're just a couple of It-less 'ITS'!"

Definitely worth watching for Clara Bow!


Sources and further reading:

1. Fritzi Kramer: It (1927) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, October 27, 2017
2. Stacia Kissick Jones: The White Elephant Blogathon: Clara Bow and It (1927). On: She Blogged By Night, April 1, 2012

Silent movies - When a Man Loves

I warned you. I said the profile would be back and here it is. Applause for Mr. John Barrymore, ladies and gentlemen!

I even broke my rule of the first picture
always being the theatrical poster if there's one.

Please also welcome his third wife Dolores Costello.
Today's movie is "When a Man Loves" which is based on the 18th century French novel "Manon Lescaut".

Here's the plot (as usual with spoilers).
A little warning first. My feelings towards the movie may have colored my description just a tad 😐

Young Chevalier Fabien des Grieux has devoted his life to church, but when he meets the even younger Manon who is taken to a convent by her brother André, they passionately fall in love at first sight. Fabien has only just received a medal sent by the Bishop to protect him against temptations of the flesh, but drops it to the floor on the first look.
Comte Guillot de Morfontaine, who has shared the siblings' carriage, offers André a lot of money for Manon. Of course Fabien rescues her and they escape to Paris where they spend a happy week together - even though Fabien has to hock his shoe buckles so he can buy Manon a locket. "But this silly locket isn't what I wanted!" Off to a great start.

This plan has not been thought through completely.
Or rather not at all.

Tiberge, Fabien's friend, finds Manon - as does her brother -, but while he can't persuade her to "give Fabien back to them", them being his father and God, André manages to make her leave with him by threatening Fabien with prison.
Fabien is devastated when he comes back and finds Manon's note - half of which André has torn off in order to deceive Fabien into thinking Manon has left him voluntarily - even more so after his friend Tiberge who has come searching for him tells him about her and Morfontaine and points out Manon driving by in a fancy carriage. Of course he doesn't know that Manon had escaped and almost been assaulted by a commoner before André has found her and taken her back.

"Oh Manon, Manon." All she left for Fabien is a note
and her kitten Fifi to take care of "until she's back".
Sorry to say that, but Manon is young, but also an idiot.
Not sure Fabien is much better.

At a club Fabien meets the couple again. Manon is delighted to see him, but he causes a scandal by throwing gold coins at her he has won gambling and leaves. Tiberge informs his father that he's back at the seminary studying for priesthood.
The night before he will take the vow of priesthood, however, Manon turns up at the church.

"I love only you, Fabien, I have left him." (Going where?)
 "You still wear his jewels!" (So dramatic! And hammy.)
"I'm sorry, Fabien - but I'm just a woman. I shall always
love jewels and pretty clothes. Oh, and I have missed
you and Fifi so much." "Well, why didn't you say so?
Let's run away once more before you end up in the streets!"
Ok, not all of these are exact quotes, but still.

So those two fools run off again and lead a merry life - still unmarried, with brother André in the house, and have "golden days", thanks to FATHER'S CREDIT. You gotta be kidding me. Of course Dad stops the credit after hearing Fabien's back together with Manon.

"Oops. No money. That's unexpected. Why don't I tell
Manon to buy the expensive necklace?"
What the heck is wrong with you, Fabien??

Fabien can't bear the thought to deny Manon any luxury, though, so André suggests cheating at cards for which Fabien shows an amazing talent.

Back to Morfontaine who still isn't ready to give up Manon. He wants Cardinal Richelieu to convince King Louis XV to help him get her back. The King is smitten with Manon's beauty, though, and insists on gambling with Fabien for her. Two aces of diamonds are shown and of course the King can't be accused of cheating and thus wins Manon, but Richelieu convinces him that Manon would just drag the royal name through the mud and to leave her to Morfontaine instead.
Meanwhile, Fabien fights trying to save Manon. That's right, we are entering the swashbuckling phase now.

"That's right, I'm not just a pretty good cheat, but
also a great fighter. What are four or five men to me?"

Still refused by Manon, the Comte has her taken to the Prison of the Magdalen for deportation to Louisiana. Fabien rushes over there to ask the Prefect of Police for mercy. Surprise! The Prefect is Morfontaine who shows him Manon just boarding the cart taking the "fallen women" to the ship and promises Fabien the scaffold.

Not a brilliant idea, Monsieur le Comte, after all of
your experiences with Fabien you had expected
him to be caught quietly when he's quite
obviously mad (with love)? R.I.P.

Fabien follows the carriage and jumps in and follows Manon onto the ship as well.
And who catches the captain's eye? Well, it's Manon of course. Fabien's intervention gets him sent to the hellhold (no typo, that's what the title card says), but one of the other women helps Manon saying she's ill.

Fabien has plans of his own. He incites his fellow prisoners to mutiny and he's giving it his all jumping around in the cage until they break their chains successfully and take over the ship.

I'm getting definite Mr. Hyde vibes in here.

Manon gets saved yet again and she and Fabien leave in a small boat.
"Yonder - America! For us freedom - and everlasting love."

The happy ending the book doesn't have. If they
make it through the stormy sea in that tiny boat, that is.
They got that far, though, so they probably will.

A lot of people seem to like, no, love this movie. So romantic. Oh, the things he does for her. The amazing chemistry between the two lovers. Compelling performance. A wonderful period drama. Everything from romance to swashbuckling. I could keep going.

But I don't love it. In fact, I was sooo close to not finishing it. After about 15 minutes. These two annoyed me so much, and I wasn't sure it was because of the story (which, to remind you, is based on an 18th century novel (that I'm definitely not going to read)), because of the acting (I've seen overacting before, but it never bothered me this much), because of the chemistry (which I couldn't find, but I have to admit I had a problem seeing a 45 year old Barrymore supposed to be around the same age as a 23 year old Costello and couldn't get over that) or if it's my current mood.

Mind you, I loved the costumes ("I'm just a woman. I shall always love jewels and pretty clothes", you remember) and I honestly think I could have had a LOT of fun with Barrymore's acting - just look at the pictures I have chosen - but not with this story. Or those people.
You know, I really think that's it - I just couldn't put up with Manon and Fabien and their love story.
Heck, I had fewer problems with Morfontaine. At least Sam de Grasse made a great villain (just as he did as Prince John in "Robin Hood" and the pirate lieutenant in "The Black Pirate").

Then there was, as silly as it may sound to you, Fifi.
It made me nervous how they kept handling the kitten, it was always around, even when Fabien went out drinking. Then they showed Fifi once grown up and that was it which was actually better for my peace of mind.

I'm sorry, I know this is a lot of rambling, but that's exactly the feeling the film gave me.
Well, I said before that I will always tell you my personal opinion and in this case I didn't even use any sources.
The movie will not end up on my re-watch list, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on John Barrymore as well. The profile will be back eventually!

Oh, one last thing. Cardinal Richelieu. I just have to show you a picture of him. Makeup goals? A little cat on the cheek?