Working with Cecil B. DeMille could be hard on actors. In 1920 Lillian Gish was chased across drifting ice floes during the shooting of Way Down East for D. W. Griffiths (How I Feel About Winter - 01/05/09) . At the other end of the decade, Lina Basquette's Judith in The Godless Girl (1929) endured repeated takes of being rescued from a (real) fire, thus restoring her faith in God. We know that Basquette's faith in her director was severely shaken; she never forgot how close she came to being burned alive in the name of cinematic verisimilitude. As for Marie Prevost's bad girl, negotiating her way out of reform school (above), she was strung up by her wrists and beaten during one scene. The public was shocked and titillated but DeMille maintained that he was merely reflecting "real life" for the sake of art, just the kind of thing Griffith said, too. No wonder Mae West said that "Whenever a girl goes bad, there go a whole lot of men right after her."22 February 2009
Marie Prevost In The Godless Girl
Working with Cecil B. DeMille could be hard on actors. In 1920 Lillian Gish was chased across drifting ice floes during the shooting of Way Down East for D. W. Griffiths (How I Feel About Winter - 01/05/09) . At the other end of the decade, Lina Basquette's Judith in The Godless Girl (1929) endured repeated takes of being rescued from a (real) fire, thus restoring her faith in God. We know that Basquette's faith in her director was severely shaken; she never forgot how close she came to being burned alive in the name of cinematic verisimilitude. As for Marie Prevost's bad girl, negotiating her way out of reform school (above), she was strung up by her wrists and beaten during one scene. The public was shocked and titillated but DeMille maintained that he was merely reflecting "real life" for the sake of art, just the kind of thing Griffith said, too. No wonder Mae West said that "Whenever a girl goes bad, there go a whole lot of men right after her."
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4 comments:
Great Mae West quote. I cannot believe what these early actors and actresses went through. It's a wonder some made it out alive!
Jeanne, I smell a book! There must be many hair-raising stories of this kind. I wonder if there is a book out there? I have heard that Claudette Colbert & Henry Fonda filmed "Drums Along The Mohawk" in Montana in the 1930s.
Oh the trial and tribulations of being an actress! Poor Lina Basquette, but then, she had terrific stories to tell at dinner parties. And Mae West has the best quotes, doesn't she? I have to tell you that I enjoy reading your posts.
Thank you for the kind words. In her book "Passionate Minds", Claudia Roth Pierpont who writes for the New Yorker, has a fascinating essay about Mae West. One of my favorite records to listen to as a little girl, when visiting my grandfather, was "I'm Just A Good Girl Who Wants To Go Bad."
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