The Mollycoddle

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Douglas Fairbanks and Ruth Renick in The Mollycoddle (1920)

An American who has lived much of his life outside the country returns to Arizona for the first time in years and encounters villainy.An American who has lived much of his life outside the country returns to Arizona for the first time in years and encounters villainy.An American who has lived much of his life outside the country returns to Arizona for the first time in years and encounters villainy.

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IMDb RATING

6.5/10

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YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
This was one of the few films in which Douglas Fairbanks did not perform most of his own stunts. Shortly after filming began he badly hurt his wrists while attempting a running mount of a horse; the animal got spooked and took off just as he was jumping on her. Veteran stuntman Richard Talmadge, who had previously doubled for Fairbanks in other films for stunts that the studio deemed too dangerous for him to perform, was hired as Fairbanks' stunt double for most of the stunts in this film.

Goofs
At about 5:54 into the film, Richard Marshall IV throws well-worn Barber half dollars at the feet of townspeople imploring them to celebrate a newlywed couple. Minutes earlier, a title card identified the year as 1880. The Barber half dollar was first introduced into American coinage in 1892, twelve years after the scene depicted. The most likely half dollar he should have thrown was the Liberty-seated type.

Crazy credits
"FOREWORD: Our thanks are gratefully expressed to government officials, tribal chiefs, and to the hundreds of picturesque Hopi Indians on their reservation near the Painted Desert of Arizona, who, in their savage way heartily welcomed us to their prehistoric villages and with primitive cheerfulness played an important part in this picture."

Connections
Featured in I, Douglas Fairbanks (2018)

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

6/10

Entertaining romp

Richard Marshall, Arizona-born, is descended from great men of the past, but he is a bit of a fop. While vacationing in Monte Carlo, he meets several fellow Americans on a tour. The tour is run by Henry von Holkar. Marshall falls for Virginia Dale, one of the tourists. Unbeknownst to the participants, von Holkar is a diamond smuggler. He suspects Marshall is a secret agent on his trail and seeks to dispose of him. Meanwhile, the actual agent is trying to get the goods on von Holkar. The finale takes place in Arizona.

While today's audiences would probably revolt over certain aspects of this film (which I will get to), overall it's an entertaining romp. Fairbanks is fun to watch, and Ruth Renick is lovely. Beery, as usual, makes a great villain. The climax features some nice photography in the American southwest, and there is a well-staged avalanche. One film magazine reported that Fairbanks had been injured by a boulder while filming the scene. The stunts are held to a minimum, although there is a very good final brawl between Fairbanks and Beery (even though Beery manages to wear a suit through the entire ordeal). One rather interesting aspect of the film is an animated sequence (like a cartoon) near the beginning of the film, to provide some background to the plot. There are also some humorous moments. One occurs when Fairbanks gets caught in a fishing net, and almost gets his head chopped off with the other fish at a cannery. The guy working the cannery is wrester Bull Montana. Another funny moment is when Fairbanks tries to communicate with an Indian, using sign language. The Indian responds "what the hell you talking about?"

The Foreword expresses gratitude to the Hopi Indians "who, in their savage way heartily welcomed us to their prehistoric villages and with primitive cheerfulness played an important part in this picture." Whoops. The very next title card explains that "a mollycoddle is a body of man entirely surrounded by super-civilization." This made no sense to me, so I broke out Webster's dictionary and found that a mollycoddle is "an effeminate person." Whoops. Well, this was 1920. I'm not demanding this film be banned from the airwaves. It is certainly worth a look.