"Always stay with me darling. Never leave me. Please I need you I need you so much, please... Please find my belt!"
(NOTE: this is my first review ever, I don't have any experience in writing one, and English isn't my native, so i hope you'll be patient reading my long review, and many thanks).
We sometimes come across a rare film that it seems nobody have seen before, hoping it to be a gem, a buried treasure, that we can feel proud we're among the only few who came across such film.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with this one. It seems nobody has seen this one, as both IMDb and Letterboxd shows no one has reviewed it or rated it yet.
For I, I had the pleasure (although it wasn't?!) to come across this very rare one!!! And I tell you this film is horrid and twisted.
Now to the plot, you can read the first half in the plot description and up to this point, all is typical melodrama, nothing to write home about, man in love with woman, another woman friend of the man dies (in a very horrible way), she leaves a child behind, asking the man to take care of her, he pass himself as her father or adopt her, all the same.
But wait for the second half, where it will get messed up!
(Spoiler ahead)
The first half takes place around 1917/1918, at this point, Mitzi (the now adopted daughter) is 6 years old (as it's confirmed in the closing credits). Years jump to 1931! Mitzi now must be 18 or 19?! Why is it important to point that out?! Well, as I was afraid, the film went exactly the direction I was expecting, (with a little twist than usual?) (one would expect such a twist if he had seen Abel Gance's La Roue, Frank Borzage's Lazybones, and Lon Chaney's Laugh, Clown, Laugh)
For now SHE IS IN LOVE WITH HER ADOPTING FATHER!!! When Michael Morda rejoins with his old flame, she gets extremely jealous of her "DADDY" (as she calls him!).
She confesses to Jerry (Charles Ruggles) about her emotions, and HE'S ALRIGHT WITH IT AND HAPPY ABOUT IT, not only that, HE TEACH HER SEX UP HERSELF FOR HER "DADDY" to notice her.
She then hints at Michael, he spanks her (on her rear of course), she runs crying, he tries to comfort her, she gives him a kiss on the mouth to give him a hint about her love, but when he senses it, he tries to put her away in another apartment... The separation won't last long.
They rejoin then, dance a little, they share A VERYYY LOOONG KISS (MORE THAN THE NOTORIOUS 3 SECONDS, I measured it, it was a whole 9 SECONDS, as far as I remember, it's the longest I seen for a pre-Code film, I'm not exaggerating, I tell you it's madness). Then he confesses to Jerry that he's MADLY IN LOVE WITH HER! Excuse meeee?!! She was literally a baby in your hand, you raised her since she was 6 and watched her grow up... I tell you it's creepy... it's messed up... It's f****d up!!!
I mentioned that that was the case in many silent films I mentioned before, but at least the girlies didn't end up with the adopting father! While here, no, they reconcile at the end and share another long kiss, curtains down.
Phew, that was pretty exhausting. As you have read the theme here was actually common in the that (and the silent) era, I can't really figure it out WHY?! Did the audience of the past really enjoyed such twisted stories?! It seems yes (Evidence is the contemporary reviews didn't mind it, photoplay called it pleasant and celebrated Michael "winning" Mitzi!, so did new york times) I that's the past, but today this film would be controversial and considered "ped*phelia", as it should be.
It is such a shame this rare film had such a frustrating theme, because it's told in style and talent, the cast are excellent, the directing is smooth, but those won't redeem the heinous affair.
The closing line of the film (I wrote it up first in this review) has traumatized me... It seems it will haunt me for a long time!
