#goldwyn

Direction: George Fitzmaurice

Scenario: Frances Marion (learn more at the Women Film Pioneers Project)

Original Novel: Leonard Merrick’s “The Worldlings”

Camera: Arthur C. Miller

Set Design: Anton Grote

Studio: Goldwyn (production) & First National (distribution)

Performers: Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle, Claude Gillingwater, Alec B. Francis, John Patrick, Charles Youree, Etta Lee, Lon Poff

Polo Players: Nita Cavalier, Virginia Jolly, Martha Wing

Premiere: 25 January 1925 at the Strand, New York

Status: presumed lost, save for a trailer

Length: 7, 231-7,251 feet, or roughly 71 minutes. (8 reels)

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

While pearl diving off the coast of a remote South Seas island, Philip Jardine (Youree) and Maurice Blake (Colman) have a vicious fight underwater over the possession of a valuable pearl. In the struggle, Jardine is cut and subsequently attacked by a shark and killed. Blake manages to escape to shore.

Aileen Pringle & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Rosa Carmino (Pringle), Jardine’s common-law wife, reveals to Blake that Jardine came from a wealthy family back in the United States. A letter and money has arrived to carry Jardine back home to San Francisco to reunite with his long-estranged father (Gillingwater). Carmino convinces Blake to assume Jardine’s identity. Blake Has doubts, but the promise of a fresh start leads him to accept the proposition. Blake and Carmino travel together to California.

The deception is successful and Blake begins running in high society where he meets Helen Saville (Kenyon). Saville is the daughter of a Bishop (Francis), who happens to be the elder Jardine’s best friend. The old men are keen on the relationship, but Blake is held back by guilt over his deception. Additionally, as part of the identity theft scheme, Blake is bankrolling Carmino’s luxurious bohemian lifestyle.

Top: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925 | Bottom: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Screenland, February 1925

On the grounds of the Jardine estate, a bevy of bathing beauties decide to put on a polo match—blondes vs. brunettes. Saville is also spending the day riding, and her horse gets startled and bolts headlong toward a cliff. Blake springs into action and manages to save Saville at the last moment. Overwhelmed by the situation, Blake confesses his love for Saville. The exchange is overheard by Jardine and the Bishop.

Alec Francis, Claude Gillingwater, Doris Kenyon, & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Jardine throws an extravagant party where he announces the youngsters’ engagement. Unfortunately, Carmino is one of the entertainers hired for the party. Carmino performs a dramatic under-the-sea dance number that creatively retells the story of Blake and Jardine’s underwater battle. As it turns out, Carmino is in love with Blake and she is unpleasantly surprised with the engagement announcement. Carmino threatens to expose Blake. Blake attempts to pay her off.

Under-the-water dance sequence in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Blake and Saville are married and head off via airplane to Del Monte Beach for their honeymoon. Blake is overwhelmed with guilt and is working up the courage to make a full confession to Saville. Unbeknownst to Blake, Carmino has followed the couple. Carmino goes straight to Saville, but rather than revealing the deception, she claims that she is Blake’s mistress and that he has been keeping her. Carmino uses the pay-off check Blake gave her as evidence. Saville is heartbroken and immediately returns home.

Blake follows Saville back to San Francisco, where he confesses to both the elder Jardine and Saville. The old man’s heart is also broken as he has accepted Blake as his son and loved him as such. Blake is despondent and shoots himself.

Miraculously, Blake survives and Saville has chosen to stand by him and nurse him back to health. Jardine has accepted Blake as his true son, forgiving the deception. Carmino returns home.

Miscellaneous stills from A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture News, 26 December 1925 [L to R: John Patrick, Aileen Pringle, Ronald Colman, Pringle, Pringle, Etta Lee, Colman, Doris Kenyon, Kenyon, Colman, Pringle]

Additional sequences featured in the film (but I’m not sure where they fit in the continuity):

Another dance sequence by Pringle as Carmino staged in her studio apartment

Aileen Pringle in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

The Bishop Saville and Jardine play chess and the Bishops cheats, is caught by Jardine

Claude Gillingwater & Alec Francis in A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture Magazine, March 1925

Four old men are left to care for a baby and are at a loss

Four old men (Alec B. Francis & Claude Gillingwater to right) in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

A snafu regarding a taxicab losing its wheel, driver is upset

Taxicab snafu in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

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Points of Interest:

Contemporary blurb that describes the under-the-sea dance sequence in more detail:

“By a combination of photography and set design, gigantic fish swim about among the coral trees and huge sea shells. Even the human participants in the under-sea dance make their entrance as divers swimming down from the surface to the immense shell on the ocean’s floor which serves as the hiding place of the stellar feminine dancer who is clad in a symbolic costume of pearls.  “In order to enhance the brilliancy of the picture, the entire set, including coral, shells and floor of the sea, was finished in bright silver and the costumes of the dancers were made entirely of especially constructed luminous silver and gold cloth. Even the natural flicker of light and shadow which characterizes scenes actually filmed under water was reproduced by the technicians.  “The marine dance tableau constitutes a play within a play in “A Thief in Paradise.” It is the entertainment provided by the host at a lavish engagement party given in honor of two of the principals and also has an important dramatic value in developing one of the many dramatic moments of the story.” - Moving Picture World, 10 January 1925

Based on some of the stills, I think it’s possible that Aileen Pringle may have had a double for this dance sequence, but no other dancers are credited. There is also no credit I could find for a choreographer.

The amount of pure spectacle packed into a mere seventy-one minutes is astounding to me! Knowing how skilled Frances Marion was as a scenarist, I don’t doubt that A Thief in Paradise managed to deliver plot just as well as it (according to contemporary reviews) delivered the spectacle. Film historians have been working for years to restore Marion’s rightful place as a crucial figure in American film history, so examples of her work being lost sting just that much more. 

Despite the fact that A Thief in Paradise was a huge success and a top box-office draw of 1925, comparatively little digitized material exists online. Most notably absent are stills from the South Seas portion of the film.

This Ronald Colman fan website has some screenshots from the extant trailer as well as a digitized copy of a program from ATiP’s German release.

Hawaiian actress Etta Lee also appears in this film as Carmino’s maid. I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about Lee and will probably end up doing a spin-off of this post about her career. You may recognize Lee from her roles in The Untameable (1923), The Toll of the Sea (1922), or The Thief of Baghdad (1924)

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Bedtime Cuddles

The smaller guy is Goldwyn, @elluq ‘s oc. Not Jekyll’s kid, despite what it looks like. XD

Jekyll is probably telling Goldwyn his latest work, or some crazy story from childhood. I have no clue. XD

W. Averell Harriman (center) with Samuel Goldwyn and Frances Howard Goldwyn on the slopes at Sun Valley, circa 1938.