Until recently I was totally unfamiliar with the work of Constance Talmadge, who retired with the arrival of talkies and died in 1973. But she is positively terrific in a pair of long-unseen ’20s comedies that age extremely well in “The Constance Talmadge Collection,” a single-disc double feature released recently on DVD by Kino.
I initially decided to watch “Her Night Of Romance” (1924) and “Her Sister From Paris” (1925) because I’m a fan of her leading man in both films, Ronald Colman, whose silent-era work is woefully underrepresented on DVD. Indeed, in both films he displays a physicality not often seen in his talkies, where his wonderful voice tends to dominate his performances. But I soon fell under the spell of Constance, whose ability to play sexy and funny at the same time is as timeless as Carole Lombard’s.
It doesn’t hurt that both of these gossamer, fast-moving comedies are written by the great Hanns Kraaly, frequent collaborator of Ernst Lubitch in this era, and they are directed with great skill by the underrated Sidney Franklin (whose seldom-seen “Private Lives” is one of the best early talkie comedies).
In “Her Night of Romance,” she’s an American heiress whose father buys her a London estate so she can hide out from fortune hunters. But she’s unknowingly pursued by the estate’s former owner, a now-penniless playboy portrayed by Colman, who is being egged on by his lawyer (Jean Hersholt).
Even better is “Her Sister From Paris” with Constance as a frumpy Vienna hausfrau who impersonates her glamorous twin sister, a dance, to test the fidelity of husband Colman. Talmadge gives a tour de force in the double role in this very funny, sophisticated movie, which was remade much less successfully by George Cukor as Greta Garbo’s final film, “Two-Faced Woman.” To make things even more confusing, the IMDB claims that the 1934 film “Moulin Rouge,” with Constance Bennett (who is also in “Two-Faced Woman”), which I’ve never seen, is also a remake.
Like Constance Bennett and Lillian Gish, Constance Talmadge had a sister who was also a famous Hollywood actress. Norma Talmadge, the subject of a concurrent double-feature set from Kino from restorations by the Library of Congress was a brunette (Constance was blonde) considered Hollywood’s leading dramatic actress for much of the 1920s.
Kraaly also wrote the script for the lavishly mounted “Kiki” (1926) which also features Colman as the manager of a Parisian music hall who encourages the waiflife heroine’s ambitions to become a chorus girl. Norma’s comic style is more dated than her sister’s and the story — remade as an early talkie by Mary Pickford (who Norma had supplanted at the box office) — is fairly creaky. Clarence Brown directs.
Norma (who retired after one talkie) is on more solid ground with “Within the Law”(1923), based on a 1912 play by Bayard Veiller that had already been filmed in 1917 with Alice Joyce. This version is fluently directed by Frank Lloyd from a solid script by Frances Marion. Norma shows off her acting chops as a department-store clerk who is wrongly convicted of stealing. When the owner refuses her plea for mercy, she vows to gain revenge. Her strictly legal plotting after her release from prison includes an engagment to the owner’s son.
“Within the Law” was remade seven years later as “Paid,” a talkie vehicle for Joan Crawford, a version that coincidentally recently became available at the Warner Archive Collection. Crawford is impressive in a breakthrough dramatic role, but the script is less nuanced and director Sam Wood’s supporting cast reflects the weakness sometimes found in MGM’s early talkies. Robert Armstrong (“King Kong”) is miscast as the gang leader Crawford becomes involved with and Douglass Montgomery, as usual, is beyond ineffectual as the owner’s son (Lew Cody and Jack Mulhall are more plausible in the Talmadge version).
Presumably production chief Irving Thalberg would have taken better care of his wife Norma Shearer, who was slated to play Crawford’s role until she became pregnant. MGM took yet another crack at this evergreen in 1939, when it became a B-movie vehicle for Ruth Hussey under the original title of “Within the Law.”