SOULS FOR SALE on Turner Classic Movies
by Andre Soares
TCM Alert: A little late in the game — as usual — but there’s still time. This evening, Turner Classic Movies will be showing a restored print of Souls for Sale, a 1923 dramatic comedy written and directed by Rupert Hughes (uncle of magnate Howard Hughes), who also wrote the novel on which the film is based. The restored film will be accompanied by a new score by Marcus Sjowal, one of TCM’s Young Composers.
Souls for Sale, the story of a young woman named Remember Steddon (no kidding) who becomes a major film star, has been rarely seen in the last 80 years — and even then only in badly battered prints. (I had the displeasure of suffering through one such print several years ago.) Though all but forgotten today, Hughes’ satirical look at the American film industry of the early 1920s is quite remarkable.
First of all, at least in its satirical first half, the film offers a jaded — and quite witty — behind-the-scenes glimpse at early Hollywood moviemaking, featuring cameos by dozens of the biggest names of the time, among them Charles Chaplin, actresses Anita Stewart (Louis B. Mayer Productions’ biggest star), Claire Windsor, Bessie Love, Florence Vidor*, and Anna Q. Nilsson, directors Fred Niblo, King Vidor, and Erich von Stroheim (on the set of his masterpiece, Greed), screenwriter-producer June Mathis (after Mary Pickford, the most powerful woman in Hollywood), and many others.
But more than a historical curiosity, at its best Souls for Sale offers a great example that silent films could be as sophisticated as the wittiest of our current comedies. (And those are quite rare.) Additionally, the film boasts a first-rate performance by its then rising star, former Kodak model Eleanor Boardman — best known for her dramatic skills in King Vidor’s 1928 social drama The Crowd.
Besides Boardman, the Souls for Sale cast includes Richard Dix (nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award in 1930-31 for Cimarron), Mae Busch (probably best remembered for her appearances in Laurel & Hardy comedies of the 1930s), Barbara La Marr (labeled “The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful”), popular leading man Frank Mayo, frequent silent villain Lew Cody, actress and socialite Aileen Pringle, and a very young William Haines (who later in the decade became one of the top box-office attractions in the U.S.).
Despite its descent into melodrama in its last third, Souls for Sale is a must for those interested in both film history and entertaining filmmaking. In sum: Unmissable.
From the TCM schedule (EDT):
8:00 PM Souls for Sale (1923) A young woman turns Hollywood upside down in her search for stardom. Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch, Barbara La Marr. D: Rupert Hughes. 80m.
9:45 PM A Woman of Paris (1923) In this silent film, when a young woman thinks her fiance has jilted her, she runs off to Paris and a life of sin. Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Carl Miller. D: Charles Chaplin. BW 78m.
11:15 PM Greed (1924) In this silent film, lust for gold tears apart a dentist and his wife. Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt. D: Erich von Stroheim. BW & C 239m.
3:30 AM Souls for Sale (1923) A young woman turns Hollywood upside down in her search for stardom. Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch, Barbara La Marr. D: Rupert Hughes. 80m.
More information on Souls for Sale at the TCM website.
* King and Florence Vidor were married at the time Souls for Sale was made. They divorced in 1924. Two years later, Vidor married the star of Souls for Sale, Eleanor Boardman. (They divorced in 1931.)
Note: Even though Souls for Sale was a Goldwyn Pictures production, Samuel Goldwyn was not involved in it. Goldwyn had been ousted from his own company the year before. The following year, Goldwyn Pictures would cease to exist altogether, as it joined forces with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Note Part II: Here’s hoping that Marcus Sjowal’s new score will do justice to Rupert Hughes’s vision of Souls for Sale. Some of the young composers’ scores have actually detracted from the enjoyment of the restored films shown on TCM.
The 1928 Marion Davies comedy The Patsy, in particular, comes to mind. The film’s humor was all but destroyed by the utterly inappropriate score. (I’ve seen The Patsy accompanied by Robert Israel’s delightful score at a UCLA screening. It was a real comedy then.)
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